Abstract
Many forms of unethical behavior are social in character. We are often heavily influenced by what others do. The social characteristic of dishonesty and crime nevertheless does not contradict that there is a rational element in people’s behavior. But people usually act within social conditions that are not determined by themselves. Inspired by recent findings in experimental economics, this chapter combines the standard economic model of crime, which emphasizes individual rationality, with more criminologically oriented approaches, which emphasize norms, social context, and peer influences. The aim of the chapter is to develop a framework for analyzing social interaction and how situational factors influence the spread of crime and other types of unethical behavior. It is demonstrated that various crime-preventing interventions can have effects that deviate significantly from what the standard model of rational crime predicts. Finally, it is argued that the distance between the theory of rational crime and more criminological approaches to crime is not as great as many make it out to be.