Government Effectiveness, Crime Rates and Crime Reporting

Abstract

We use data on crime incidence and crime reporting from the International Crime Victimization Survey to analyze how governance influences crime incidence and crime reporting by households. We find that governance has a significant effect on the incidence and reporting rates of some crime categories, especially theft, even after controlling for a potential reverse causality problem. We also find that governance and income inequality does not have the same effect in every household; on the contrary it is conditional on personal, social and economic characteristics. Urban, female, or poor households are more likely to experience a crime incidence and less likely to report these crimes if they live in countries with high income inequality and poor governance.