Understanding the determinants of crime

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Understanding the determinants of crime

Author Info

Ayse Imrohoroglu
Antonio Merlo
Peter Rupert

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Abstract

In this paper, we use an overlapping generations model where individuals are allowed to engage in both legitimate market activities and criminal behavior in order to assess the role of certain factors on the property crime rate. In particular, we investigate if any of the following could be capable of generating the large differences in crime rates that are observed across countries: differences in the unemployment rate, the fraction of low-human-capital individuals in an economy, the probability of apprehension, the duration of jail sentences, and income inequality. We find that small differences in the probability of apprehension and in income inequality can generate quantitatively significant differences in the crime rates across similar environments.

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Paper provided by Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland in its series Working Paper with number 0602.

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Date of creation: 2006
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Handle: RePEc:fip:fedcwp:0602

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Related research
Keywords: Crime

This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

NEP-ALL-2006-04-01 (All new papers)
NEP-DGE-2006-04-01 (Dynamic General Equilibrium)
NEP-HRM-2006-04-01 (Human Capital & Human Resource Management)
NEP-LAW-2006-04-01 (Law & Economics)
NEP-REG-2006-04-01 (Regulation)

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Other versions:
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Other versions:
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Other versions:
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