does crime increase with income write an essay
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Economic prosperity serves as a backbone for the overall progress of a nation. One thing is common in all developed nations- they are economically sound. When citizens of a country are freed from the worries of earning a livelihood to sustain their lives, they divert their attention to more useful things. They focus on education, improvise healthcare, develop technologies that make life easy and much more. Poor economic condition is the root cause of so many problems that exist in a society.
The Becker’s paper opened the door to a new field of empirical research whose main purpose was to verify and study the socioeconomic variables that affect crime. The economics of crime interacts with different and heterogeneous fields, i.e. (Sociology, Criminology, Psychology, Geography and Demography) and it is closely related to poverty, social exclusion, wage and income inequality, cultural and family background, level of education and other economic and socio-demographic factors that may affect an individual’s propensity to commit crime such as age, gender and urbanization.” [1]
Crime is an activity which is against the law and the fact that the linkage between criminal activities and the socio-economic development of the society is undeniable. Crimes are associated with economic downturns and it is believed that crimes generally tend to rise during recessions and when economy is not performing well. As we know unemployment increases dramatically during bad economy which can lead to more cases of depression and increased number of crimes. The most obvious cases are drugs and alcohol. People suffering from depression often turn to drugs for refuge. Increase in drug taking leads to more drug related crimes. Drug dealing will become higher if demand is higher and when people do not have much to buy the drugs they will commit theft for money. It is also more likely that people will commit crimes, such as those involving violence, if they are intoxicated by drugs or alcohol. On the other side economic development are also dependent upon reduction in crimes.” Keeping crime rates low now is the best guarantee that cities across the country will be able to exploit the inevitable economic recovery when it comes.” [2]
A recession leads to more debt. If people spiral into debt they are liable to become more desperate. This particularly increases crimes such as theft. People are more likely to steal so they can pay off their debts. They may also turn to other illegal ways to make money if they feel that there are no legitimate ways of earning.
“Violence is another area that can increase during a recession. People are more liable to get angry when times are tough, and therefore are more likely to turn violent. People may be angry with their employer who has made them redundant, or the government because they don’t feel that they are being helped sufficiently, meaning they are generally more disgruntled with the world. People may also become more hostile towards each other. In particular those who are struggling may be angry towards those who are not. There has been a recent example of this in Ireland, where there were instances of violence towards some Romanian immigrants. The reason for this was attributed to some being angry that the immigrants had taken “their” jobs, although they were jobs local people hadn’t applied for at the time of the vacancies.Family break ups are sometimes more likely to occur during a recession. Debt can cause stress within the family and lead to marriages breaking up. The breakup of parents can have an effect on children. They also show these children are 70% more likely to finish school without any qualifications. This is significant as a high percentage of crime is shown to be committed by those with a poor education.”
The results indicate that there is a positive association between urbanization and crime in Pakistan. Moreover, unemployment, inflation, and income inequality are also important determinants of crimes. Education, on the other hand, is found to have a negative effect on criminal activities. Rest of the study proceeds as follows; Section II briefly reviews the related literature on crimes and their determinants. Section III discusses the theoretical model and the econometric methodology used in the study. Detail of variables, results and interpretations are presented in Section IV. Section V concludes the study.