"More punishment does not necessarily lead to less crime, say researchers at ETH Zurich who have been studying the origins of crime with a computer model. In order to fight crime, more attention should be paid to the social and economic backgrounds that encourage crime....
"If we want to reduce the crime rate, we have to keep an eye on the socio-economic circumstances under which people live," says Helbing. We must not confuse this with soft justice. However, a state's response to crime has to be differentiated: besides the police and court, economic and social institutions are relevant as well – and, in fact, every individual when it comes to the integration of others. "Improving social conditions and integrating people socially can probably combat crime much more effectively than building new prisons."
http://phys.org/news/2013-10-crime.html
Perc, et al. (2013). "Understanding Recurrent Crime as System-Immanent Collective Behavior." PLoS ONE 8(10), Abstract.
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