Abstract
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.
Highlights
The relationship between inequality and crime is of interest in multiple disciplines, including sociology, economics, psychology and epidemiology
The coefficient reported by Brush [18] implies that a one percentage point change in income inequality will decrease the rate of change of ‘serious crime’ by 2,854 serious crimes per 100,000 of the population and as such seems implausibly large
Given that the Gini coefficient relies on the effect of the whole, rather than a truncated distribution, this may explain why both papers found that the Gini coefficient was not the best measure of income inequality
Summary
The relationship between inequality and crime is of interest in multiple disciplines, including sociology, economics, psychology and epidemiology. Runciman’s [1] theory of relative deprivation suggests that income inequality increases feelings of dispossession and unfairness, which leads poorer individuals to reduce perceived economic injustice through crime, while Blau and Blau [2] suggest that relevant inequalities may be exacerbated by race. Evolutionary psychologists, Wilson and Daly [3] views crime as a result from status competition. They argue that people at the bottom of the income distribution are sensitive to inequality and this leads to risk-seeking behaviour (such as crime) when low-risk activities offer poor returns to the individual
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