Mit racjonalnego łotra. Statystyka i psychologia kontra ekonomiczna analiza prawa

The aim of the paper is to critically assess the economic decisionmaking model in criminal law from the perspective of empirical legal studies and behavioral analysis of law. In the second half of the XX century the economic theory of punishment had dominant infl uence on criminal law policy in US. At the beginning of XXI century numerous statistical studies have shown limited effectiveness of the economic approach and harmful effects of the large number of prisoners currently being incarcerated. Therefore the new model of decision-making in criminal law was needed. Psychologists, behavioral economists and proponents of behavioral analysis of law were able to identify factors infl uencing decisions of criminals including hyperbolic discounting, optimism bias and affective forecasting.