Crime Distribution & Victim Behavior During a Crime Wave (original) (raw)

Crime victimization and income distribution

Crime levels have risen significantly in Argentina during recent years. In this study, we analyze the relationship between crime victimization and income distribution. Our main question is whether the rich or the poor have been the main victims of this crime rise. For home robberies, we found that the poor have suffered the main crime increases. For street robberies, both groups show similar augments in victimization. The findings are consistent with additional evidence showing that the rich are able to protect their houses through pecuniary security devices better than the poor. We find no differences in reporting rates and access to justice by social groups.

Inequality, Crime, and Security in Argentina

2010

In this paper I will examine some of the practical and moral dilemmas posed by security policy in a country like Argentina where there is great social injustice and high levels of poverty and indigence with a sustained increase in violent crime against persons. Firstly, I will analyze certain economic indicators of the levels of poverty, destitution, and inequality that characterize social structure in Argentina. Secondly, I will evaluate the increase in violent crimes against persons. Thirdly, I will debate whether criminal prosecution of people who are destitute and excluded from the political system is justified. The thesis I defend is that the State has the duty to protect people from violent crime through the application of prison sentences, despite the injustice of the system and the exclusion of many who commit them. Without disregarding the structural nature of the security problem and the need to implement long-term policies for economic develop, income redistribution, education, and social integration, I will argue that the circumstances of exclusion and marginalization do not constitute a valid excuse for removing criminal responsibility from individuals who commit violent crimes against other persons. Selected Figures for Poverty and Inequality in Argentina Argentina is a country with high indexes of poverty, destitution, and inequality. 1 During the economic crisis of 2002, the percentage of households beneath the poverty line reached 45.7% and the percentage of the population beneath it was 55%. The percentage of households

Crime and Victimization: An Economic Perspective

Economía, 2000

Crime and Victimization: An Economic Perspective W hy is there more crime and violence in some countries than in others? And why is violent crime rising so rapidly around the world? What groups of people are most at risk from various types of crime? What evidence do we have that "crime waves" exist? Does poverty lead to high rates of violent crime? Or is it income inequality? Should crime alleviation be added to the list of benefits from economic reforms that generate sustained growth? Is the pro-cyclical nature of public expenditures in most developing countries exacerbating crime waves? Is education the key to solving the crime problem? How effective is police presence in fighting crime? Do people trust the police and judiciary? Are cultural and sociological factors overriding determinants of crime rates? Or are they secondary to economic forces? In particular, what makes Latin America one of the most crime-prone regions in the world? These questions are of vital importance to policy makers. Although we can not provide definite answers to all these issues, this paper should contribute to understanding them better and approaching their solutions. The incidence of crime and violence varies widely across nations and regions of the world. Notwithstanding the enormous heterogeneity in the levels of crime and victimization rates, there are signs that over the past decades the problems of crime and violence have worsened considerably

Determinants of the crime rate in Argentina during the '90s

2000

Based on Becker's theoretical model, the present paper estimates econometrically the determinants of the crime rate in Argentina for the 1990-1999 period. Like previous empirical applications for Argentina, a significant deterrence effect was found. However unlike them we find a strong socio-economic effect on the crime rate. The unemployment rate and the income inequality indicator were found to have a positive and significant effects on the crime rate.

Crime and Inequality: Reverse Causality

2007

Crime and Inequality are often associated. Although, scholars and the regular press have been mostly looking at income inequality as a determinant of crime, in this study we make the case for reverse causality. We explore the theoretical mechanism through which crime -a toll on property rights-leads to lower levels of disposable income, since individuals resort to costly forms of protection. Given concave preferences, the poor will be much more reluctant to save the remainder income and to invest in future consumption via any sort of high yielding asset. The rich su¤er less from this toll since concavity has a much lower e¤ect for the wealthy . Empirically, we show that violent crime leads poorer people to use more expensive means of transportations to work. We also show that property crime increases the percentage of population that moves to another home. This increase is of the same amount for all income levels above $25,0000. To conclude, we show, using overcrowding litigation of prisions in the US as an instrument for crime, that a doubling in property crime has a 10%-15% positive and signi…cant e¤ect on inequality, measured by the Gini coe¢ cient, after 6 or more years.

Income Inequality and Crime: A Review and Explanation of the Time?series Evidence

Sociology and Criminology-Open Access, 2013

This review analyses the time-series evidence of the effects of changing income inequality on crime for a number of countries and types of crime. 17 papers analysing this relationship using time-series evidence were found via a systematic search. The papers' findings on the relationship between inequality and crime were classified as providing evidence of Significant Positive Associations, No Significant Associations, or Significant Negative Associations. The analysis indicated that property crime increases with rising income inequality and specific measures of violent crime, such as homicide and robbery, also display sensitivity to income inequality over time. Aggregated non-specific measures of violent crime, however, do not display such sensitivity, which is most likely to be due to differences in crime reporting. The majority of the differences in the findings can be explained by the choice of covariates, and the estimators and measures used in the paper. The paper concludes with a unified interpretation of the time-series evidence.

Crime and income inequality: An economic approach

Atlantic Economic Journal, 1992

The criminology and sociology literature are rich with scholarly attempts to identify the variables affecting criminal activity, giving particular emphasis to crimes against property. Naturally, special attention has been devoted to the influence of inequality in the distribution of income, since its importance is so intuitively appealing. An excellent study of this type is that of Carroll and Jackson [1983], who used a sample from 93 non-southern cities with a population of over 50,000. Their regression results demonstrated [p. 186] "that inequality has strong causal effects on crime rates." In their introductory survey of the literature, Caroll and Jackson [p. 179] also point out that "recent research tends to the conclusion that it is inequality rather than poverty that is the crucial variable." As they correctly point out, this argument was very strongly made by Braithwaite [1979, p. 211], who after an exhaustive review of the literature concluded that while the evidence regarding the effect of poverty on crime rate is inconsistent, "the literature shows fairly uniform support for a positive association between inequality and crime .... " This relationship, first noted by Eberts and Schwirian [1968], is generally accepted today. Surprisingly, this positive association seems to hold true only for the U.S. In a cross-national study of 62 countries, Stack [1984, p. 247] concludes that, "the best estimates in the analysis offer no support for the hypotheses on property crime and inequality. The results of research based predominantly on American samples are not replicated for a large set of nations with varied cultural and institutional frameworks." The most significant variable affecting crime rates according to Stack was the total level of wealth of the society or what he termed the degree of economic development [p. 246]. "Again, however, a control variable does most of the explaining of the variance in crime: the level of economic development." The importance of the total level of wealth in explaining property crime within the U.S. itself is also pointed out by Jacobs [1981]. He finds [p. 23] that, "if we look at the effects of particular variables we find that the indicator with the most consistent effects was the measure of economic development." And he shows once again that (in contrast to cross-national data) for the U.