Income Inequality and Property Crime - A Cross-National Analysis of Relative Deprivation Theory

• NCJ Number: 94297
• Journal: Criminology Volume: 22 Issue: 2 Dated: (May 1984) Pages: 229-257
• Author(s): S Stack
• Date Published: 1984
• Length: 29 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Survey (Cross-Cultural)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Revision of a paper presented at the annual meetings of the American Society of Criminology, Toronto, 1982.

Annotation

Cultural issues that act as intervening variables in the inequality-crime relationship have been neglected in the literature on inequality and crime.

Abstract

The present article explores the interaction between inequality and variables thought to be associated with a perception that inequality is illegitimate. The central argument is that the strength of inequality-crime relationship is dependent on a contextual factor, a radical egalitarian culture promoting the view that inequality is illegitimate. Data on property crime from 62 nations are analyzed. The results generally indicate that neither inequality nor the interaction between inequality and egalitarian culture exerts independent effects on property crime. (Publisher abstract)