Social security and the crime rate in Poland

Abstract

The article describes changes in the crime rate in Poland in the years 2004–2018 in the context of social security. The number of administrative decisions on the basis of which social benefits were granted and changes in the amount of the paid benefits were considered. The aim of the paper is to establish the correlation between the number of beneficiaries of social benefits and the total amount of these benefits, and the crime rate in Poland. The data used in the study come from the Local Data Bank of Statistics Poland and comprise the number of people who were granted a social benefit and the amount of benefits paid from voivodship budgets. The study was also based on data from the National Police Headquarters relating to the number and category of committed crimes in particular voivodships. The results of the conducted research indicate that there is a strong positive correlation between the number of beneficiaries of social benefits and the crime rate. On the other hand, no correlation was detected between the amount of benefits paid from voivodship budgets and the crime rate. The analysis of the literature on the subject and the author’s own research results confirm that economic factors have an impact on the crime rate.