Abstract: Criminal economics studies crimes from a new angle which sees the phenomenon of crime as a market，and analyzes behaviors of criminals，enterprises and citizens in this market based on neoclassical microeconomics，exploring interaction between benefit factors and criminals′ consciousness and crime prevention strategies.Based on the hypothesis of economic man and methodological individualism，such study probes into causes for crimes and prevention strategies with benefit principle as the key criterion，and costbenefit analysis，equilibrium analysis and marginal analysis as analytical tools.Oil and gas related crimes are mostly caused by a desire for material and economic benefits which exert negative influence on society，economy and environment.Therefore，it is undoubtedly practicable and necessary to analyze such benefitdriven crimes and prevention strategies.

Key words: criminal economics, economic man, criminal market, oil and gas related crimes, crime prevention