Crime as pollution: proposal for market-based incentives to reduce crime externalities

Noise pollution and industrial pollution are well-known phenomena. The more technical term for such pollution is ‘externalities’. In both instances, the producer of the pollution creates a social cost that is borne by others. Unwilling recipients, such as residents on a noisy airport flightpath or downstream recipients of water pollution, bear the cost. For some types of pollution, such as greenhouse gases dispersed in the atmosphere, society as a whole bears the cost of the emissions.