Property Crime Research Articles

Euro switch, economic growth, and property crimes in Europe

Euro switch, economic growth, and property crimes in Europe

When police pull back: Neighborhood‐level effects of de‐policing on violent and property crime, a research note

AbstractMany U.S. cities witnessed both de‐policing and increased crime in 2020, yet whether the former contributed to the latter remains unclear. Indeed, much of what is known about the effects of proactive policing on crime comes from studies that evaluated highly focused interventions atypical of day‐to‐day policing, used cities as the unit of analysis, or could not rule out endogeneity. This study addresses each of these issues, thereby advancing the evidence base concerning the effects of policing on crime. Leveraging two exogenous shocks presented by the onset of the coronavirus 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic and social unrest after the murder of George Floyd, we evaluated the effects of sudden and sustained reductions in high‐discretion policing on crime at the neighborhood level in Denver, Colorado. Multilevel models accounting for trends in prior police activity, neighborhood structure, seasonality, and population mobility revealed mixed results. On the one hand, large‐scale reductions in stops and drug‐related arrests were associated with significant increases in violent and property crimes, respectively. On the other hand, fewer disorder arrests did not affect crime. These results were not universal across neighborhoods. We discuss the implications of these findings in light of debates concerning the appropriate role of policing in the 21st century.

WHEN CLIMATE CHANGES, SO DOES VIOLENCE: EXAMINING THE LINK BETWEEN WEATHER AND CRIME IN PERNAMBUCO-NORTHEAST, BRAZIL

This paper examines the impact of weather shocks on crime in Pernambuco-Northeast, one of the states most affected by climate disasters in the Brazilian semi-arid region. We show that precipitation and temperature shocks in the form of droughts have a significant impact on the increase of rates of intentional lethal violent crimes (ILVC), property crimes (PC), and homicides. The effects of precipitation fluctuations in the form of droughts persist beyond the agricultural season and in the medium-term, and vary according to municipal and criminological characteristics. Moreover, adverse weather conditions (e.g., droughts) have a greater impact on income-related crimes. Consistent with this evidence, we find that the persistent response of crime rates to adverse weather conditions is driven by negative shocks to rural income, followed by a deterioration in overall economic activity, urban labor market conditions, and the government’s ability to provide public goods. The patterns we identify align with a relationship between weather and crime explained by reduced opportunity costs associated with criminal activity. Regarding policy recommendations, our findings suggest that local governments should prioritize investments in water infrastructure, agricultural irrigation, expansion of water coverage, and conservation of forested areas. These measures can contribute to climate adaptation and mitigate the economic impact of weather shocks on crime.

Murder in a quarry: violent encounters and distant intimacy on a Cape convict station

AbstractThis article uses a micro-historical approach to examine an escape and murder among convict labourers between Cape Town and Stellenbosch in Southern Africa in the 1840s. It does so to demonstrate how imperial mobilities and legal conceptions of property crime were interconnected within settler colonial capital and the intimacies of colonial social worlds. Reforms in penal practice in the British Empire – in this instance, adopted in the Cape Colony from Tasmanian experiments in convict labour and moral improvement – formed part of post-abolition shifts in labour control and the management of the itinerant poor, increasingly guided by anxieties over race. Michael O’Brien, the murderer, was a suspected escaped convict from Australia, who claimed to have survived violent encounters in the Pacific as a missionary. His narrative contrasts with the predominantly regional mobilities and crimes of the other Cape convicts – notably stock theft and petty robbery – that occurred in the contested spaces of law, colonialism and property. This article discusses convict narratives around crime and redemption across a maritime empire, and the affective relations of coercion and care between convicts, overseers, constables and superintendents on the smaller scale of a convict station. It further contends that changes in criminal justice and governance in Southern Africa were thus contingent on the intimacies of scale and affect, on connections between the local, the global and the biographical.

Doing Gender and Doing Crime: The Influence of Biological Sex and Gender Identity on Crime

ABSTRACT Although research on the “gender gap” tends to show that males commit more crime than females, this research focuses almost exclusively on biological sex. Towards disentangling biology and sociology, this study examines how sex and gender identity relate to violent crime and property crime independently and interdependently. Results show that males reported higher levels of violent offending than females. Among the full sample, masculine identities were associated with greater levels of violent and property offending. More masculine identities were associated with more violent offending for males and more property crime for females. Greater feminine identities increased property offending for males.

Crime Hallmark Nexus Between Tourism Support and Destination: Empirical Standpoint of Social Control Theory

The focus of the study is on types of crime and their relationship with tourism destinations and tourism support among northern tourist areas. The main objective of the study was to shed light on the types of crime and their association with tourism destinations and tourism support with the framework of the social control theoretical model (inner and outer control). Face-to-face quantitative data was collected from (n=501) respondents. The study analyzed data with partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM version 4). The path analysis showed that crimes against persons, property, and victimless crime significantly decreased tourism support. A similar phenomenon, such as crimes against person and property, decreased tourism destinations, and victimless crime was insignificant. Based on the study’s findings, the results concluded that types of crime have made unsuccessful tourism support and tourism destination in the northern region. The study put forward recommendations to policymakers that criminal activities should be controlled through crime control systems among different tourist destinations in northern areas.

My Body Is My Temple? Comparing Sexual Crimes and Property Crimes in a Human Rights Tradition

AbstractDespite recent criminal law reforms to define rape through the lack of consent, practical questions remain about how to regulate different kinds of violations of sexual autonomy. Many common law scholars have found it eye-opening how much more extensive and easily accepted the protection of property rights is compared to the protection of sexual autonomy. But when the rationale of criminalization resides in human rights, such a comparison is alien; protecting human dignity appears separate from protecting instrumental property rights. Considering rape a subversion of our ownership rights to our bodies (the property model of rape) is rightly regarded as problematic. This article argues that comparing sexual crimes and property crimes is not predicated on the property model but rather on autonomy itself. Comparisons based on autonomy could help resolve practical dilemmas of consent-based rape laws while respecting human dignity and thus be fruitful research pursuits within a human rights tradition.

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

Catch and release: Testing the effect of a citation release policy on crime in Washington, DC

AbstractResearch summaryThis study investigated the effect of an expanded police station citation release policy enacted in Washington, DC in March 2020 on eight types of crime: homicide, sex abuse, robbery, assault with a dangerous weapon, burglary, motor vehicle theft, theft from motor vehicles, and other theft. Monthly‐level multivariate time series analyses employed data from 2013‐2022 and accounted for the relationship between crime, arrests, and the jail population. The expanded policy was hypothesized to increase certain property crimes based on the new guidelines, but results indicated the policy modification was associated with changes in citywide crime counts for one type of crime: homicide.Policy implicationsEfforts around the United States to decarcerate the pre‐trial jail population should examine potential unintended consequences for public safety. The current study failed to detect a statistically significant increase in seven of the eight types of crime during the expanded use of one jail decarceration approach, police station citation release. In the future, jurisdictions looking to reduce their jail population might consider citation release as a speedy and cost‐effective alternative to release‐on‐recognizance, but they should take care to monitor individual defendants and evaluate their own program.

A Bayesian Aoristic Logistic Regression to Model Spatio-Temporal Crime Risk Under the Presence of Interval-Censored Event Times

PurposeCrime data analysis has gained significant interest due to its peculiarities. One key characteristic of property crimes is the uncertainty surrounding their exact temporal location, often limited to a time window.MethodsThis study introduces a spatio-temporal logistic regression model that addresses the challenges posed by temporal uncertainty in crime data analysis. Inspired by the aoristic method, our Bayesian approach allows for the inclusion of temporal uncertainty in the model.ResultsTo demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed model, we apply it to both simulated datasets and a dataset of residential burglaries recorded in Valencia, Spain. We compare our proposal with a complete cases model, which excludes temporally-uncertain events, and also with alternative models that rely on imputation procedures. Our model exhibits superior performance in terms of recovering the true underlying crime risk.ConclusionsThe proposed modeling framework effectively handles interval-censored temporal observations while incorporating covariate and space–time effects. This flexible model can be implemented to analyze crime data with uncertainty in temporal locations, providing valuable insights for crime prevention and law enforcement strategies.

Revisiting the Income Inequality-Crime Puzzle

The economics literature generally supports a positive theoretical link between income inequality and crime. However, despite this consensus, empirical evidence has struggled to yield definitive conclusions. To address this puzzle, I conducted a meta-analysis based on 1,341 estimates drawn from 43 studies in economics journals. The findings indicate a statistically significant but economically insignificant true effect of inequality on crime, ranging between 0.007 and 0.123 using UWLS FAT-PET and advanced methods. In essence, if there is an impact of inequality on crime, it is, at best, minimal. Additionally, there is some limited evidence suggesting positive publication bias. Results from Bayesian model averaging reveal that inequality does not affect exclusively property crime, as predicted by the rational choice models. Moreover, this analysis shows that inequality measures which are sensitive to changes in income at the middle and top of the distribution are associated with higher coefficients. The study also underscores the biases arising from the exclusion of relevant variables. The implications of this research suggest that inequality may not be the primary motivator for criminal behaviour, with other factors potentially playing more significant roles. Lastly, if inequality does affect crime, it might do so in different ways than those discussed by the majority of the existing empirical studies.

Criminality at Shopping Malls: A South African Perspective

A sharp rise in crimes at shopping malls in KwaZulu-Natal and other provinces around the country has prompted shopping mall owners to keep shopping malls safe. Some of the crimes that shopping malls experience include armed robberies, common robberies, parking lot crimes (theft from motor vehicles), assaults, store holdups, shoplifting and property crimes. Shoppers and retailers at malls are concerned about their safety. Criminals commit crimes for numerous reasons, and the situations are always different. The purpose of this article was to assess the crime risks at these malls so that the malls can be made safe, secure and a pleasant environment for all. The Criminal Opportunity Theory served as the basis for this study. A qualitative case study design was used in this study. One-on-one interviews, observation and criminal case docket analysis were used to collect data. Nine shopping malls, 30 criminal case dockets and 30 participants were purposively sampled, based on specific criteria. The collected data were thematically analysed and interpreted. It was found that there was a great need for both violent and nonviolent crimes to be reduced at shopping malls. The study showed that security measures should be enhanced to deter potential criminals and mitigate the risk of criminal activities.

Public budget and crime: an analysis based on the examination of indicators of lethal and non-lethal crimes in the state of Ceará

Objective: This article aims to analyze a possible relationship between budget execution and crime levels in the State of Ceará between 2012 and 2021.
 Methodology: Use of linear regression using dependent variables (budgetary expenditures with the public security function) and independent variables (public revenue, intentional lethal violent crimes, seizure of weapons, violent property crimes, thefts, and sexual crimes).
 Results: After evaluating the proposed variables, the results showed the influence of 2 (two) of the 6 (six) independent variables analyzed: revenue at 1% and theft at 10%. The other indicators related to intentional lethal violent crimes, gun seizures, violent property crimes, and sex crimes did not show consistent results.
 Contributions of the Study: Expands the level of knowledge about possible relationships between budget expenditures and crime (its various typologies), in order to better understand whether effectively only spending on public security can influence the level of crime in a state of the federation.

The Impact of Property Crime on Public Infrastructure Development in the Nigerian Cities

Property crime in Nigeria incurs billions of Naira in annual rehabilitation costs, significantly straining government budgets and hindering resource allocation for sustainable urban development. This study investigates how public infrastructure development in Nigerian citiesis impacted by property crime focusing on the Lagos metropolis. Utilising both primary and secondary data, including in-depth interviews with five building industry professionals and government records analysis.The research adopts parallel data analysis to assess the financial impact of property crime, its relationship with environmental decay, economic losses, social consequences, and its effect on project delivery timelines. It exemplifies the use of triangulation as a methodological metaphor for drawing inferences from qualitative and quantitative findings. The findings demonstrate that property crime severely hampers public infrastructure development, resulting in increased government expenditure, environmental degradation, economic setbacks, public suffering, and delays in project completion. The study underscores the need for comprehensive strategies to mitigate property crime and ensure sustainable infrastructure development. Effective measures, including enhanced security partnerships and community engagement, are crucial for protecting public assets and informing policymakers in the development of effective policies for managing and maintaining the nation’s public infrastructure.

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.

Psychological Profiles of Colombian Juvenile Offenders: Variations Based on Offense Types

Introduction: young offenders are not a homogeneous group, and it is necessary to identify their psychological and psychopathological differences according to some classification.Objective: to characterize the psychological profiles of Colombian juvenile delinquents according to the type of offense, exploring possible differences.Method: a descriptive, quantitative, and cross-sectional observational study was conducted with 200 young offenders aged between 14 and 18 years. The Children and Adolescents Evaluation System (SENA) was used, which measures 29 variables related to emotional and behavioral problems (internalized, externalized, contextual, and specific problems), areas of vulnerability, and psychological resources of the adolescent. Participants were grouped according to the type of offense: group 1 (offenses against persons), group 2 (property crimes), and group 3 (drug trafficking and possession offenses).Results: the main finding was detecting clinical and statistical differences when comparing the groups. Comparison analyses showed statistically significant differences in 18 of the 29 variables. In all of these, the group 1 T scores were higher than those of the other groups, and the group 3 scores were lower than those of the other groups.Conclusions: the findings reinforce the thesis that young offenders should not be considered as a single group or as a homogeneous group. This finding is consistent with authors and research that argue for and present evidence in favor of a differential classification of juvenile delinquency and the existence of a special group that has committed serious offenses

U prilog snižavanja starosne granice krivične odgovornosti - drugačiji pogled na "večitu dilemu"

The journal Crimen 3/2023 published an article entitled "Lowering the age limit of criminal responsibility: an eternal dilemma?" in which the author presents arguments against this solution. The aim of this analysis is to provide the opposite arguments, in favor of lowering the minimum age of criminal responsibility, so that the reader can make his judgment based on the pro and contra argumentation. Opponents of lowering the minimum age of criminal responsibility (MACR) mostly refer to the argument of "accepted international standards" as well as to the humane, altruistic statement that children perpetrators of criminal offenses are most often victims of poor socio-economic conditions that "force them into crime", so that they should not be punished, but that they should be helped. In the first part of the paper are analysed international standards and MACR in European and non-European countries. We are proving that international standards regarding MACR does not exists, but MACR is different in different countries. The structure of juvenile crime in Serbia is analysed in the second part. Statistical data show that juvenile crime in recent years is increasingly violent and brutal, what confirm the thesis that MACR should be lowered. The third part of the paper deals with juveniles sanctions. They are relatively mild and do not differ much from the measures of social protection, except that they are not imposed by social services but by judicial authorities, whose authority can only act encouragingly and frighteningly on the child to stop with criminal behaviour. In this sense, we do not see that lowering the MACR would drastically "deteriorate" the position of children, except that perhaps the fear of "criminal responsibility" would deter them from committing criminal offenses. In the end, we deal with the psycho-physical (in)maturity of children starting from the premise that we should not only observe the protection and interests of the child perpetrator, but also the protection and interests of the child victims and victims in general, who feel powerless in a system in which they cannot achieve material or moral satisfaction. Statistics show that the most common victims of juvenile crime are other children, and protection of the childperpetrator in such cases means neglection of the child-victim. The law cannot and should not be only "particularly human", neither for the sake of abstract "humanity" turn an eye to concrete crimes. The issue of lowering the age of criminal responsibility below 14 should be considered because this limit was set at another time and for minors who had a completely different lifestyle and who committed mostly property crimes. Having in mind all that, we advocate that MACR should be reduced to 12 years for all or alternatively only for violent crimes, and in terms of "criminally irresponsible" children, some form of parental criminal responsibility should be introduced. Because the child, by birth itself becomes a legal subject, and the consequences of his actions or the pain inflicted on the victim cannot be attributed to "force majeure", but exclusively to their guilt or the guilt of their parents.

Public Opinion on Impact of Unemployment on Crime Rate in Tamilnadu

Crime rates of various countries reveal the correlation between employment and crime. Individuals without jobs and accommodations are forced to violate the law in order to survive. Thus, many people consider poverty as the main cause of crime worldwide. The objectives of the research is to find out the relationship between unemployment and crime rate, to find out the measures taken by government to prevent unemployment issues, to determine the kinds of crime committed by unemployed people and to find out measures for reducing crime rates that are related to unemployment in Tamilnadu .The primary information for the research was collected from the general public of different age groups with well framed and structured questionnaires. The secondary source that the researcher used was books, articles, case laws, journals. The study was based on the primary and secondary sources together. Government measures include Schemes for Unemployed and Poor. Atal Pension Yojana - The Co-contributory Pension Scheme by Department of Financial Services aims to encourage people from the unorganized sector to voluntarily save for their retirement There are certain measures which can be taken: Change in industrial technique, Dealing with seasonal unemployment, Changes in the Education system, Introduction of new governmental measures, Population control. The main aim of the study is to analyse the relationship between unemployment and crime rate. This paper concludes that Different types of criminal activities are carried out, and not all can be directly linked to the lack of employment. Studies have shown that property crime can be connected to unemployment. However, violent crimes such as murder and rape are not strongly related to poverty.

When is problem-oriented policing most effective? A systematic examination of heterogeneity in effect sizes for reducing crime and disorder

Abstract This article presents results from a systematic review and meta-analysis of problem-oriented policing (POP). The results show an overall 33.8% relative reduction in crime/disorder in treatment groups relative to controls, which adds to evidence that POP is an effective strategy that police leaders should adopt. There is, however, a great deal of variation in effect sizes, and moderator analyses were conducted to examine when POP may work best. Preliminary findings suggest POP may have larger impacts when responses are broader and involve more partner agencies/groups, when more of the agency is involved in the program, and when targeting property crime and disorder. Importantly, our findings also show that shallower implementations of POP still had significant impacts and suggest that POP should be implemented even if an agency cannot initially carry out in-depth problem-solving. Future research should supplement meta-analyses with narrative reviews to further identify what makes POP most effective.

Etički aspekti izveštavanja o maloletničkom kriminalitetu u Srbiji

The subject of the paper is reporting on juvenile crime in Serbia on the websites of daily newspapers Kurir and Politika. By applying the content analysis, the author intended to determine whether reporting was approached professionally, as well as whether journalists dealt with the causes of juvenile delinquency, while at the same time trying to educate readers about the specific characteristics of this phenomenon. The aim of the paper is to examine the compliance of media coverage with the relevant norms that bind journalists. The results of the research indicate that, in a formal and legal sense, media reporting is in compliance with the positive regulations governing this area, but that the ethics could be at a higher level. Although reporting is generally based on the named sources and does not contradict the principle of privacy protection, there is no indication of the broader context in which juvenile delinquency manifests itself. The media image of juvenile crime created by the analyzed websites emphasizes violent crime, although juveniles in Serbia predominantly commit property crimes. The author concludes that there is a need for more substantive reporting that would not be limited to the mere transmission of information about the most serious forms of juvenile crime, but would also educate the general public about this topic.