Economic Assistance and Crime: A Cross-National Investigation

• NCJ Number: 222780
• Journal: European Journal of Criminology Volume: 5 Issue: 2 Dated: April 2008 Pages: 217-238
• Author(s): Joanne Savage; Richard R. Bennett; Mona Danner
• Date Published: April 2008
• Length: 22 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United Kingdom

Annotation

Using pooled, cross-national crime-series data, this study tested several hypotheses about the dynamics between a country's social welfare spending and crime.

Abstract

The findings show that the countries that spent 10 percent more on social welfare had, on average, 2.3-percent lower theft rates and 3.3 percent lower homicide rates. Because social welfare spending involves billions of dollars, this translates into spending $153,000 per theft averted and $57.6 million per homicide prevented. Although this implies that crime control through social welfare outlay is not cost-effective, it is important to note that the social welfare programs examined during the study's time period were not specifically designed to reduce crime. In addition, there are other reasons to believe that researchers may have underestimated the size of the total effect of social welfare on crime; for example, the research did not test interaction effects or indirect effects. Lagged effects examined suggest either that generous social welfare benefits followed by less generous benefits cause more crime or that past levels of generous benefits are causing a lack of initiative that has a longer term, adverse impact on crime. In either case, the data suggest that consistent benefits that keep pace with the cost of living may prevent unexpected crime fluctuations. Thus, educating policymakers about the importance of maintaining economic support as a means of minimizing crime may be an important component of anticrime campaigns. This research drew upon a data archive that contains crime by offense and offender and social, political, and economic indicators that cover the 25-year period from 1960 to 1984 for a diverse sample of 52 nations from every region of the world, representing both developed and developing nations. The sample of nations is nonrandom, consisting of those nations that have a tradition of collecting and reporting crime data. 5 tables, 2 figures, 61 references, and appended list of countries included in the analysis