Lower Crime Rates Research Articles

Rural Criminology: Unveiling Its Importance and the Path Forward

The article conducts a comprehensive analysis of literature spanning four decades (1980–2023) sourced from databases such as Scopus, JSTOR, and ScienceDirect. It critically examines the evolution and theoretical underpinnings of rural criminology, emphasizing its significance and illustrating key research themes within the field. Despite the domination of North American, Australian, and British scholarship, rural criminology has seen considerable growth and emerged as a dynamic and extensive field of study, engaging scholars from many countries worldwide from various disciplines. Studies show that although areas across the rural–urban continuum often exhibit lower crime rates in contrast to cities, they encounter distinctive safety challenges shaped by their inherited characteristics and the uneven impact of globalization. Misconceptions regarding rural life can conceal the actual occurrence of crime and violence, including acts against marginalized groups, the environment, and wildlife, making crime prevention initiatives a challenge.

ETHICAL CULTURE AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA

Ethics are typically a by product of a society's culture, and people of a particular culture adhere to it wholeheartedly. It alludes to an objective norm of good and evil that specifies what actions human beings should do to support their moral convictions. The research attempted to draw citizens ‘attention to the value of moral behavior in society and its implications for both individuals and government officials in the interest of the economy. The study useed an analytical method and has a focus on secondary data sources. Information is gathered from books, articles and other published materials. The article discussed the history of the study of ethics, as well as the essential terms, traits and codes, as well as its social functions. The study concluded that moral teaching and practices will create honesty and integrity in people, lower crime rates, and boost the economy if they are given pride of position and are broadly accepted in most nations.

Sino-noir of Serial Killers and Dismemberments

In a Chinese society with low crime rates, why do TV series savor the genre of Sino-noir of serial killers and dismemberments? Ritualized bloodletting during nightly bingeing signals a psychological displacement from one’s terminal condition, cowering under that which cannot be named—the dictatorship not so much of the proletariat as of the Party secretariat. Sino-noir on serial killers honors the Party while having it on, spoofing it. The obligatory “Chinese characteristics” hinge on the horror of body mutilation, mirroring a schizophrenic China not only divided against itself but in denial of any such division. The argument zooms in on Shuang Xuetao’s novella of dongbei (northeast or Manchuria) noir, “Moses on the Plain,” which chronicles how woes and crimes befall hapless characters fated to float or even drown during Deng Xiaoping’s liberalization, as many State-subsidized factories in northeastern China folded, creating massive unemployment and misery. Part of China, particularly coastal urban areas, boomed, while other parts, such as the Northeast’s heavy industry, went bust, a schizophrenic fissure within the body politic. In the 8-episode TV series, Why Try to Change Me Now, director Zhang Dalei adapts Shuang’s novella told from multiple perspectives into a tour de force in slow cinema, drawing from cinema verité with non-professional actors, natural lighting and sound, an almost stationary camera, and minimalist acting. The argument then concludes with the 16-episode TV series Who Is the Murderer capitalizing on the triple entendre of “ba” for the father, the hegemon/bully, and the end.

Multiple Equilibria and Equilibrium Selection in the Crime Commission Game

Abstract The deterrence function of criminal punishment relies on the credibility of enforcers to carry out threatened sanctions. That credibility may be suspect when enforcers face budgetary constraints, especially if the realized crime rate is high. This leads to the potential for multiple equilibria in the “crime commission game” – one involving a low crime rate, and one involving a high crime rate. The latter potentially arises because a high rate of crimes may overwhelm the ability of enforcers to apprehend offenders, thus leading to a self-fulfilling outcome. When multiple equilibria are possible, the question of which one is “selected” has practical as well as theoretical relevance. The paper assesses the implications of various selection criteria, including payoff dominance, risk dominance, and the global games approach. The conclusions highlight the role of the credibility of punishment in deterring crime, and also shed light on the interpretation of data on crime and punishment.

Does firms’ corporate social responsibility reduce crime?

This study examines the impact of firms’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) on state crime rates in the U.S. from 2004 to 2020. Our research bolsters the expanding work under the Law and Political Economy Project out of Yale University and Economics of Crime Working Group of National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). Our empirical results show that states with domiciled firms having better CSR performance exhibit significantly lower crime rates. This lower crime incidence is driven by the environmental, social, and governance dimensions of CSR. Our study is the first to document the societal impact of CSR by analyzing state crime rates, and we conclude that CSR activities have positive externalities on society.

Local crime and substance use disorders: A comparison of midlife adults in the 1990s and 2000s

This study investigated how sociopolitical changes in the United States between the 1990s and 2000s may explain the increase in substance use disorders and reduced longevity in more recent cohorts of US midlife adults. The 2008 recession which drastically increased unemployment rates across the country may have had negative implications for downstream contextual and individual processes, including both local crime rates and substance use disorders. The Midlife in the United States Survey cohort (1995; n = 6148; 20–75 years) and the MIDUS Refresher cohort (2011; n = 3543; 23–76 years) reported on substance use disorders. These data were linked to Uniform Crime Reporting violent crime rates to determine whether associations between local crime and substance use disorders changed among two separate cohorts of US midlife adults assessed before or after the 2008 recession. In 1995, despite higher local crime rates, substance use disorders were not associated with local crime. The comparatively lower crime rates of 2011, however, associated with greater prevalence of substance use disorders. Considering unemployment rates from the Decennial Census and American Community Survey, which were substantially higher in 2011 relative to 1995, completely diminished the local crime rate-substance use disorder association. The increased prevalence of substance use disorders observed in the more recent cohort of midlife adults assessed in the current study may represent maladaptive coping to local crime after the 2008 recession.

Peculiarities of the proof process in Japanese criminal procedure

In today’s open world, with the growing importance of the international component in the fight against crime, a legal professional naturally needs knowledge that goes beyond the national legal framework, including the institution of international legal assistance. Studying and comprehending the experience of criminal procedure in different countries of the world makes it possible to apply the relevant positive practices in Ukraine and improve the process of forming a legal culture in independent Ukraine. In particular, it is important to study the experience of criminal procedure in Japan, a country with the lowest crime rate among the industrialized countries of the world. Familiarization with this system should help to develop a comprehensive approach to improving criminal proceedings in Ukraine, which will contribute to the successful development of a democratic, social, and legal state. Currently, the process of combining different criminal procedural systems of the world is underway, but the Anglo-American system of criminal procedure has its own peculiarities that can be distinguished from other systems of criminal procedure. The criminal procedure legislation of Japan is quite specific. It reflects both continental and Anglo-Saxon models of law. In particular, the widespread use of precedent makes it similar to the Anglo-Saxon form, and the presence of prosecutorial supervision over the police during the investigation process - to the continental one. The problems of criminal procedural evidence are constantly attracting the attention of scholars. The scientific interest in the problems of collecting, verifying and evaluating evidence is not accidental and is explained by their importance for criminal proceedings. Evidence is a central, core component of criminal procedure. Proper evidentiary activity is a prerequisite for solving its tasks. Therefore, further research of both the general theoretical issues of criminal procedural evidence and its individual problematic aspects remains an important scientific task, the solution of which will contribute to improving the efficiency of domestic criminal proceedings and bringing them closer to European standards. The article examines certain peculiarities of criminal procedural evidence in Japan. The author examines the peculiarities of the process of proof at certain stages of the process, and analyzes the legal status of the subjects of proof. The materials of the article are of both theoretical and practical value. They can be used for further scientific research of the peculiarities of domestic criminal procedural evidence, as well as for proper understanding and implementation of its law enforcement criminal procedural activities.

The relationships between Urban Tree Canopy Cover and Crime in São Paulo City, Brazil

Prior research has indicated lower crime rates in areas with greater tree canopy cover predominantly in the Global North. There are few studies from the Global South, and more specifically in Latin America. Given the high prevalence of crime in Latin American cities, the need to address social and environmental inequalities using nature-based solutions is urgent. This study examines crime and tree canopy cover through a series of spatial analyses for São Paulo city, Brazil, while controlling for potential confounders. We tested six levels of data aggregation that were combined with three different crime types and two denominators of crime, to account for spurious findings from Modifiable Areal Unit Problems (MAUP). Of the 36 models, a majority of 27 models (75 %) indicate a negative relationship between crime and tree cover canopy, while 4 models (11 %) show a positive correlation, and 5 models (14 %) suggest no statistically significant relationship. Our best models allow us to infer that 10 % greater tree canopy cover is associated with a 1.20 % fewer property, personal and total reported crimes, with statistical significance at the p < 0.001 level. These findings support our hypothesis that there is a negative relationship between tree canopy cover and crime, with a stronger association observed for property crime than personal or total crime. The negative relationship persisted independently of the level of data aggregation, crime types, crime denominator and spatial models specifications (lag and SARMA), avoiding statistical bias of MAUP. The results follow the literature that have observed tree cover associated with lower crime rates, for different types of crime, while adding a new climatic and cultural context to the evidence base.

Exposure to Crime and Racial Birth Outcome Disparities.

Urban communities in the United States were transformed at the end of the twentieth century by a rapid decline in neighborhood crime and violence. We leverage that sharp decline in violence to estimate the relationship between violent crime rates and racial disparities in birth outcomes. Combining birth certificate data from US counties with the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting statistics from 1992 to 2002, we show that lower crime rates are associated with substantially smaller Black-White disparities in birth weight, low birth weight, and small for gestational age. These associations are stronger in more segregated counties, suggesting that the impacts of the crime decline may have been concentrated in places with larger disparities in exposure to crime. We also estimate birth outcome disparities under the counterfactual that the crime decline did not occur and show that reductions in crime statistically explain between one-fifth and one-half of the overall reduction in Black-White birth weight, LBW, and SGA disparities that occurred during the 1990s. Drawing on recent literature showing that exposure to violent crime has negative causal effects on birth outcomes, which in turn influence life-course outcomes, we argue that these results suggest that changes in national crime rates have implications for urban health inequality.

The Punitive State: The Making of Juvenile Delinquents in Portugal

In what appears to be the staging of a Foucauldian drama on crime and punishment, the police, judiciary and penal system in Portugal work, albeit unintentionally, hand in hand in the production of juvenile delinquents. Young sub-citizens from the socioeconomic periphery are penalized as much for their state of marginality as for their deeds, transforming petty crooks into habitual offenders, doomed to spend their youth behind bars. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in criminal courts and prisons in the Lisbon metropolitan area, the article discusses the role of law enforcement, the judiciary and prisons in the forging of criminal identities. It is argued that Portugal's punitive approach to criminal justice, despite its low crime rates, is rooted primarily in the history of its institutions and the criminologies of their agents, preserving class boundaries in a persistently unequal society.

Income mobility and crime: a hierarchical cluster analysis on principal components for 27 OECD countries

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to investigate the linkages between intergenerational income mobility and crime for 27 OECD countries, considering different types of crime, family ties, enforcement, in terms of punishment rate and perceived quality of the legal system, redistributive outcomes and government expenditure.Design/methodology/approachUsing the Global Database of Intergenerational Mobility (GDIM), the empirical analysis is conducted by coupling the principal components analysis with the hierarchical clustering. The variance tests verify the robustness of the clusters.FindingsIncome mobility is higher in those countries where there is high public investment devoted to education and high perception of rule of law to buffer the adverse effects of crime on income mobility. The redistributive policies must be oriented to better the wealth distribution and not only income equality opportunity to decrease crime and to increase income mobility. A plausible existence of “hidden” income mobility emerges from the linkages between income mobility and frauds.Social implicationsMore redistributive policies for education, income and wealth equality should be applied in those countries with low income mobility and high violent crime rates; higher punishment rates should be applied to reduce the rates of thefts and frauds in high income mobility countries.Originality/valueThe main contribution is the identification of what type of crime leads to downward income mobility, as well as the role of perceived quality of the legal system, government and family ties in the association between income mobility and crime, suggesting also the potential existence of “hidden” income mobility.Peer reviewThe peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-07-2023-0520

Utilizing Machine Learning Ensemble Techniques for Crime Hotspot Analysis and Prediction

By combining the predictions of trained classifiers, the ensemble learning approach generates new examples through cooperative decision-making. Evidence from early analysis has demonstrated the empirical and logical superiority of ensemble classifiers over single component classifiers. It is still difficult to identify the right configuration for a given dataset, even with the presentation of many ensemble approaches. Many theories based on prediction have been developed to address the topic of machine learning crime prediction in India. The dynamic character of crimes becomes difficult to ascertain. Crime prediction aims to lower crime rates and discourage criminal action. This study provides an authentic and efficient way for determining acceptable crime predictions: the assemble-stacking based crime prediction method (SBCPM), which applies learning-based strategies to produce domain-specific configurations compared to another machine learning model. The result implies that performer models are generally not particularly successful. The ensemble model occasionally outperforms the others with the best correlation coefficient, the lowest average, and the lowest absolute errors. The proposed method generated accurate categorization on the test data. Compared to previous research that just employed violence-based crime records as a baseline, the model's prediction effect is demonstrated to be stronger. The results further shown that criminological theories are congruent with any real-world crime data. The recommended strategy also proved useful in predicting possible crimes. and show that the ensemble model has higher prediction accuracy when compared to the individual classifier.

Exploring the association between park size and crime

ABSTRACT This study explored the link between park size and crime risk in Alabama, analyzing 564 parks across 73 cities with populations over 10,000. Park dimensions were measured using Google Earth Pro, and crime data, covering violent and property crimes, were sourced from Applied Geographic Solutions. Additional data on population density, mental health prevalence, social vulnerability, and alcohol expenditure (indicative of affluence) were obtained from the U.S. Census Bureau, CDC, and ESRI. A multiple regression analysis revealed a significant negative association between park size and crime risk, meaning that larger park sizes tended to have lower crime rates. Key covariates—mental health, social vulnerability, and alcohol spending— were also significantly related to crime rates. Our findings have policy implications for local governments and community organizations seeking to reduce crime rates.

Anti-Corruption and Compliance Control: Identifying and Evaluating Corruption Risks and preventing them in State Governance

In the interconnected world, corruption is the pervasive threat that has been resulting in dire consequences in terms of boosting the economy, development, public infrastructure, and transparency, just to name a few. This article provides first-hand information about many states that have been suffering from the catastrophic effects of corruption-based practices that are being committed by people who hold special entrusted power in a particular position. This means that more violations came about due to the people who abuse entrusted power in state governance across the globe. Furthermore, the given article gives insights into the hands-on practice and pragmatic approaches of developed countries where there is a low corruption-based crime rate. Additionally, this article emphasizes the importance of raising legal literacy among individuals and offers the practical approaches of the aforementioned countries to prevent, identify, and evaluate corruption risks in state governance.

Threats to regional economic security: statistical assessment of criminal activity and countermeasures

conditions of geopolitical and economic instability, growing social tension, the emergence of crime-generating situations such as high inflation, differentiation of society by income level, mass criminalization of the population’s consciousness and others lead to a rather complex criminogenic situation, leading to the emergence of a threatening threat to national and regional economic security. As a result, identifying, assessing and preventing crimes in the sphere of economic activity are mandatory to ensure low crime rates in the region. In the article, the regions of the Russian Federation were differentiated by crimes of an economic nature, and trends were identified and threats to ensuring the economic security of the Stavropol Territory were studied using the grouping method, economic-geographical, territorial-sectoral approaches, etc.

Is the spatial distribution of urban green space associated with crime in Chicago?

During past decades, much progress has been made to elucidate the relationship between the quantity of urban green space and crimes, but less is known about how their spatial distribution is associated with crimes. Therefore, this study aims to understand how the composition and configuration of urban green space are related to crimes in metropolitan cities in the United States. Our study performed landscape analysis using 756 census tracts for violent crimes and non-violent crimes in Chicago from 2017 to 2021 while controlling socioeconomic status. Spatial lag models showed that tree canopies were negatively associated with crime rates, while grass areas were positively associated with crime rates. In terms of the spatial distribution, there were more crime incidents in irregularly shaped green spaces compared to reguraraly shaped green spaces. On the contrary, disconnected tree canopies were more likely to have lower crime rates. Aggregated (i.e., a single large) also tended to have less crime rates. The results of our study provide some evidence of the role of the spatial distribution of urban green space on crimes and shed light on the ways to reduce crimes through effective urban green space planning

Delinquent Youths Sociodemographic Characteristics: A Study of 2068 Official Data

Juvenile delinquency is a critical social problem around the globe. As vulnerable beings, it is critical to understand the reasons behind children’s involvement in crime. The aim of the present study is to determine the socio-economic and demographic characteristics of juvenile delinquents in North Cyprus. The population of this research is formed by juvenile delinquent cases which are taken from the archival records of the General Directorate of Police spanning 2008-2018 in Northern Cyprus. In this direction, 2068 official police records are examined by quantitative research methods, frequency analysis and Pearson chi-square tests were applied to the data. The findings contribute to understanding the dimensions of juvenile delinquency in the country. Northern Cyprus is not recognised as an independent republic, and compared to other European countries Cyprus still has low crime rates for both adult and juvenile offenders. We determined that most delinquent youths in the 16–17 age group, attending school and mostly involved in property crime. The highest rate of involvement in crime is in the biggest three cities in which both social and physical disorders are highly ranked, while social control is low. Identifying the factors behind juvenile delinquency is vital to contributing to social policies and psychosocial support mechanisms on this issue. Keywords: juvenile delinquency, official record, crime

Associations between violent crime inside and outside, air temperature, urban heat island magnitude and urban green space

There are more incidents of violence in summer and on hot days, a trend likely to be exacerbated by climate change. Urban areas experience additional temperature modulation due to the urban form, however, to date, no studies have considered the effect of the urban heat island (UHI) or green space with respect to the temperature–violence relationship. This study modelled the relationship between the number of daily violent crime incidents that occurred inside or outside between July 2013 and June 2018, and the average surface UHI or percentage greencover (including grasses, shrubs and trees) within each local government area in Greater Sydney, Australia. Panelised negative binomial time series regression models indicated that the violent crime rate was associated with higher surface UHI for crimes committed outside (p = 0.006) but not inside (p = 0.072). Greater percentage of all vegetation was associated with significantly lower rates of violent crime committed outside (p = 0.011) but was not associated with violent crimes committed inside (p = 0.430). More socio-economic disadvantage was associated with higher rates of violent crime committed inside (p = 0.002) but not outside (p = 0.145). Greater temperature was non-linearly associated with higher rates of violent crime committed both inside and outside (p < 0.001). The findings of this study are important because both violence and heat exposure are critical health issues and will be stressed by urbanisation and climate change. The expansion of green space and/or reduction in UHI may mitigate these effects.

Gentrification and crime in Buffalo, New York.

Since the 1990s, gentrification has significantly changed American urban landscapes. Its implications for crime are under recent scrutiny, particularly in large cities like New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago. We extend this literature by focusing on the gentrification-crime link in the midsize city of Buffalo, New York using nine years of data from the American Community Survey and the Buffalo Police Department. Examining changes both within tracts over time and changes between gentrified and never-gentrified tracts, we find that gentrification is associated with reduced property crime and is not associated with changes in violent crime. More specifically, in comparing crime trends across tracts, we find that gentrified tracts show a trajectory of declining property crime that mirrors more advantaged tracts, while vulnerable-but-never-gentrified tracts show a U-shaped trajectory of property crime. Looking at within-tract changes, we find that years following gentrification of a given tract have lower property crime rates than years preceding gentrification, independent of the general reduction in crime over time. We discuss the implications of these findings for understanding the intersections between urban processes and crime.

Female empowerment and crime patterns in Malaysia: A non-linear analysis

Using data from 1982 to 2020, this study evaluated the impact of female employment on violent crime in Malaysia using the non-linear ARDL technique. The study found that, in the long run, lower unemployment rates were linked to lower rates of violent crime, and increased female employment facilitated a short-term reduction in violent crime. Fewer women working resulted in a short-term rise in violent crime and, over the long term, higher rates of violent crime contributed to higher rates of jail population growth. Surprisingly, higher employment rates for women were eventually linked to higher rates of violent crime. Long-term trends showed a correlation between lower employment rates for women and greater rates of violent crime. For short-term analysis, negative economic growth was linked to a rise in violent crime, and positive economic growth could lower violent crime. These results demonstrated the complex interplay between a number of variables and violent crime rates. Thus, to successfully prevent violent crime and build safer societies, it is crucial to address socioeconomic inequalities, advance gender equality, and put into practice comprehensive methods that include community assistance, employment, education, and rehabilitation.