Economics Question – Treatment or Criminal?

Question by Bob Macaron: Economics Question – treatment or criminal?
According to economists Henry Saffer of Kean University, Frank J. Chaloupka of the University of Illinois at Chicago, and Dhaval Dave of CUNY Graduate Center, it costs $ 1,733 using the criminal justice system to deter one person from using drugs and $ 1,206 using treatment centers.

1. Which of the two programs would you recommend?

A. Treatment
B. Criminal

2. What additional information do you need to determine whether either is worth pursuing?

A. The number of treatment centers and prisons available.
B. The social benefit of reducing drug use by one person.
C. The value of a drug user’s life.
D. The benefit of reducing drug use to the drug user.

Best answer:

Answer by Andrew
Treatment, need to know D. If they want to stop treatment will work better, if they don’t, criminal justice system will work better. But you want to use Treatment, both because it is cheaper and because it is ‘friendlier’.