首页    期刊浏览 2024年12月02日 星期一
登录注册

文章基本信息

  • 标题:Economics of property crime rate in Punjab.
  • 作者:Jabbar, Shahzad Mahmood ; Mohsin, Hasan M.
  • 期刊名称:Pakistan Development Review
  • 印刷版ISSN:0030-9729
  • 出版年度:2013
  • 期号:September
  • 语种:English
  • 出版社:Pakistan Institute of Development Economics
  • 关键词:Crime;Criminal statistics;Economic conditions;Unemployment

Economics of property crime rate in Punjab.


Jabbar, Shahzad Mahmood ; Mohsin, Hasan M.


This study intends to ascertain the impact of socio-economic, demographic and deterrent variables and the effect of technical criminal know-how and past criminal experience on property crime rate. The property crime equation comprises of the following independent variables: population density, unemployment rate, literacy rate, police strength and number of police proclaimed offenders in a society. The property crime equation has been estimated by using a time-series data set for Punjab from 1978 to 2012. We have applied Johansen cointegration approach to test the long run relationship among the variables. Empirical findings suggest that police strength has a deterrent effect while past criminal experience enhances property crime rate in Punjab. The study finds population density has a significant positive relationship while education has a significant negative relationship with property crime rate. Further we also find a negative relationship between unemployment and property crime which is supported by the concept of 'consensus of doubt' in the discipline of crime and economics.

JEL Classification: D6

1. INTRODUCTION

"People respond to incentives" is a universal truth that allows us to claim that people participate in criminal sector for their own social, psychological or economic incentives. Current study has focused on property crime rate that comprises of those types of offences that intentionally and deliberately attempt to or actually cause loss of property. A higher property crime rate discourages commercial activity which in turn distorts the process of economic growth. The social scientists particularly economists seem keen to identify the potential determinants of property crime that can be helpful for policy-makers in order to restore peace and stability. Becker (1968) introduced the crime and economics discipline by designating criminals and law enforcement agencies as rational individuals. Following in his footsteps economists from all around the world are contributing to investigate those potential factors which can affect the magnitude of crime rate in different societies.

Unfortunately there is a growing concern about higher crime rate in Pakistan but economics of crime have received a little attention in the country. All available studies, which review this newly emerging discipline have a common characteristic of using a country level data of socio-economic variables in explaining their effect on crime rate.

The crime rate, however, seems sensitive to the geographical boundaries of countries. The sizable literature uses states, provinces, and even the districts level data to gain insights into this serious issue. Thus it seems better to observe the effect of various socioeconomic and demographic factors on crime rate at sub-national level in Pakistan because there is lot of variation in most of the core socio-economic and demographic aggregates across regions. We use the sub-national data to estimate the crime rate equation in order to avoid the overstatement or understatement of the effects of various socioeconomic, demographic and deterrent variables. The current study has selected Punjab as a case study due to higher property crime rate there and its major role in Pakistan's economy. Moreover, we have focused on the property crime rate only because it is more responsive to socio-economic, demographic and law enforcement conditions of a society [Becsi (1998)].

The higher incidence of property crimes in Punjab has ressulted in a state of insecurity, frustration and mental unrest that spells out a dire need to deal with the situation. Our empirical investigation focuses on those factors which can significantly affect the property crime rate but have been least focused in most of the empirical attempts available at country level literature of crime and economics. First, a deterrent variable labelled as police strength to check its deterrent effect on property crime rate has been included in the current study. Secondly, an explanatory variable population of police proclaimed absconders (1) has been incorporated in economic model of property crime to capture the effect of technical criminal know-how and past criminal experience on property crime rate. Finally population density; unemployment and education have been used as control variables to see their impact on property crime rate.

For this purpose we have applied Johenson Cointegration approach to a time series data set for Punjab from 1978-2012. The study finds a significant negative impact of increasing police strength and education on property crime rate. The increase in the number of police proclaimed offenders and population density have a significant positive impact on property crimes. In view of these findings, we believe current study will not only be helpful in proposing sound policy recommendations regarding property crime prevention but will also make useful contribution to the existing literature of crime and economics.

The study has been arranged as follows: we review the literature in Section 2. The theoretical framework is presented in Section 3. In Section 4 there is a debate on methodology used in empirical estimation along with the sources of data used. Empirical findings have been stated in Section 5 and finally concluding remarks along with policy recommendations are presented in Section 6.

2. LITERATURE REVIEW

Study of crime remained a subject of interest in each society during different eras. When father of economics Smith (1776) talked about the accumulation of wealth by people he also discussed the motivation of people towards crime and demand of people for the protection from crime. Paley (1785) reported the role of deterrent variables in changing the magnitude of crime rate in different societies. However, there was the father of utilitarianism Bentham (1879), who introduced calculus while determining the criminal behaviour and optimal level of law enforcement by crime prevention authorities. Fleisher (1966), Tullock (1967), Rottenberg (1968), Becker (1968), Stiggler (1974), Landes and Posner (1975) have contributed a lot to reconnect economists with Crime and Economics Discipline [Ehlrich (1996)].

If we talk about the recent theoretical foundations of crime and economics, then we will have to go back to the contributions of Becker (1968) who led the foundations of theoretical model of criminal behaviour. He was of the view that every criminal is an economic agent as he commits crime only, when there is an expectation of increase in his utility. He also discussed the optimal structure of institutions that are responsible for crime prevention in some state by arguing that these institutions should be designed so that they should suffer minimum cost during crime prevention. In this regard along with Stigler (1968) he preferred private enforcement of law rather than public enforcement of law.

Landes and Posner (1975) criticised the above mentioned idea of Becker of turning the most likely and an ideal public enforcement of law into private enforcement of law. They were of the view that private enforcement has severe drawbacks as there can be possibility of under enforcement or over enforcement. However they favour the private enforcement of law only in civil offenses as these can be detected with an ease and can be punished at zero cost.

Friedman (1984) defended the idea of private enforcement of law by Becker and Stigler (1968) with the help of an historical example of Ireland where private enforcement of law prevailed for three hundred years not only in civil offences but also in most severe criminal offences like murder etc. during the Anglo-Saxon period. Friedman concluded that private enforcement is not as effective in offences under criminal law as it is in offences under civil law but these inefficiencies can easily be eliminated by making some minor changes in some of the formal and informal institutions that play vital role in crime prevention.

Friedman (1995) presented a new idea of turning the criminal law into civil law in support of the above mentioned Becker's idea about optimal enforcement of law. He argued that punishment for the crime prevention either in terms of imprisonment or execution is not optimal and turning of criminal law into civil law can enable a country to punish offenders in terms of monetary fines. In this way net cost of crime prevention will be zero and there will be lesser burden on taxpayers.

The above mentioned debate about the rationality of criminals and efficient law enforcement by a state is the main theme of modern crime and economics discipline. Since a criminal activity involves multi-disciplines but the current study will concentrate only on those national and international studies which are related to identifying socioeconomic, demographic and deterrent variables of crime rate.

Gillani, et al. (2009) have empirically investigated the effect of unemployment, inflation and poverty on crime rate of Pakistan by using a time series data from 1975-2007. They applied Johenson cointegration approach to conclude that unemployment rate, poverty and inflation are granger cause of crime in Pakistan. After that Jalil (2010) investigated the link between urbanisation and crime rate in Pakistan using a time series data set during 1964-2008. He also used Johenson cointegration approach in this empirical investigation and reported that a lack of planning regarding the expansion of urban areas increase crime rate while literacy rate and unemployment have a significant and negative impact on crime rate of the country.

All these studies had a little focus on deterrent variables in economic model of crime. Jabbar and Mohsin (2014) highlighted the measuring error problem and lack of deterrent variables in the economic modal of crime at country level literature. Using a time series data set for Punjab during 1978-2013, he applied Johenson cointegration approach and proved that police strength, high conviction rate and a higher literacy rate in a society have a significantly negative impact on murder crime rate while the impact of unemployment on violent crime is ambiguous.

In the large part of international literature the effect of various socioeconomic variables particularly the effect of unemployment on crime rate is ambiguous [Chiricos (1987)]. We will also discuss a few studies of crime and economics at sub-national level. Chiricos (1987) has also explored the unemployment crime relationship while other researchers like Coack and Wilson (1985) found insignificant and weak relationship between unemployment and crime rate. After a thorough research he concludes that we can get a weak and even an insignificant relationship between crime and unemployment if we use a time-series data or if we use the data of U.S economy for unemployment through the 1970s. He concluded that cross sectional studies better explain the relationship between unemployment and crime rate as compared to the time series analysis.

Imroho, et al. (2006) examined the effect of various economic, socio and demographic variables on the crime rate across different countries of the world with the help of a cross-sectional analysis. They selected at least one country from each of the continents of the world and they selected 1980 in USA as a benchmark year. They checked the effect of unemployment rate, fraction of low human capital individuals in an economy, income inequality, age categories, and the probability of apprehension along with duration of jail sentence on property crime. To check the effect of above said variables on property crime rate they used overlapping generation model to allow individuals to participate in either legitimate market activities or in illegal activities. In their final findings amazingly 79 percent people involved in property crime were not found unemployed but they were under employed. Moreover their model also predicted that 18 years of age or younger were 76 percent of the total criminals who participated in property crimes. Furthermore 46.1 percent people who were involved in property crimes did not have a high school diploma. Moreover they concluded that small differences in probabilities of apprehension and income inequality can generate a significantly large difference in the crime rates in similar environments.

Gumus (2004) investigated the effects of deterrent, socio-economic, and demographic variables on crime rate of 75 large US cities by using a cross sectional data. He concluded that per capita income and poverty are the root causes of crime in large US cities while the unemployment was statistically significant only in 1/8 of empirical equations used in this study.

Omotor (2009) used inflation, income, literacy rate, and unemployment rate to investigate their role in crime nexus of Nigeria. By using ECM and co-integration approach, he tested the relationship between crime rate and above said socio-economic variables to conclude that unemployment has a positive relationship with crime rate while a low literacy rate and high population of Nigeria were not found the root causes of stimulating crime rate in Nigeria.

New developments are taking place in the crime and economics literature and providing new insights related to crime and its determinants. Current study also intends to bring forward some of the important causes of property crime rate in Punjab [Pakistan],

3. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND EMPIRICAL PROCEDURE

In social sciences criminal behaviour can be discussed by different theories, however an economist has his own ideas to examine it. An economist always believes that people are rational and they respond to incentives so they treat criminals as economic agents as they participate in offences related to theft and snatching to enhance their utility. It can be argued that the choice between committing and not committing some criminal activity depends on the net-payoff ([[phi].sub.i]) of some criminal activity. Decision of participation in an illegitimate activity ([P.sub.i]) by criminals is decreasing function of expected cost ([C.sub.i])and increasing function of gain ([G.sub.i]) from criminal activity that can be described as under;

[P.sub.i] = f ([C.sub.i], [G.sub.i]) ... ... ... ... ... ... (1)

[C.sub.i] = f ([c.sub.i], [wl.sub.i], [p.sub.i], [f.sub.i]) ... ... ... ... ... ... (2)

[G.sub.i] = f ([L.sub.i]) ... ... ... ... ... ... (3)

Where, [C.sub.i] is total cost faced while committing a crime and furthermore [c.sub.i] can be described as direct cost i.e. time spend in planning and committing of a crime, efforts of self-defense, (2) [wl.sub.i] denotes foregone market wages in case of arrest or conviction, [p.sub.i] stands for probability of arrest or conviction and [f.sub.i] represents the fines or other penalties in term of imprisonment. While in the above stated Equation (3), [G.sub.i] is gross gain and [L.sub.i] is something gained (loot) as a result of criminal activity. Thus net pay off (3) [[phi].sub.i] can be defined as the difference of gross gain and total cost i.e.

([[phi].sub.i] = [G.sub.i] - [C.sub.i] (4)

Or

[[phi].sub.i] = [L.sub.i] - [c.sub.i] - [wl.sub.i] - [p.sub.i] [f.sub.i] (5)

It can be claimed that a criminal activity takes place if and only if;

[[phi].sub.i] > 0

It is important to note that we consider the expected gains as economic incentives because theft and snatching are more responsive to socio-economic and law enforcement variables. The above discussion is core of economic model of crime used in the current study. After studing Buonnano, el al. (2008); Cherry, et al. (2002); Becsi (1999) and Jalil, et al. (2010) we have formulated the following economic model of crime;

Crime = f (Population, Unemployment, Education, Police Strength, Police Absconders)

The above stated function contains those types of socio-economic, demographic and deterrent variables, which correspond to the theoretical framework of the current study.

The current study will use a demographic variable in the form of population density that can be the representative of urbanisation because property crimes are often considered as an urban phenomenon [Gumus (2004)]. The next variable used in our modal is unemployment, which is one of the most controversial variables of crime analysis, however it is likely to be correlated with crime in one or another way. Third variable, education can affect the decision of committing some crime as it increases the expected legitimate earnings. The next variable included in our modal is a deterrent variable labelled as police strength, which is expected to be negatively correlated with property crime rate of a society. The last variable included in our modal is the number of police proclaimed absconders in a society about which it can be argued that in case of a low opportunity cost of committing some crime police proclaimed absconders prefer to commit property crimes for their material wellbeing.

The above discussion enables us to specify the following empirical equation to estimate,

[PC.sub.t] = [alpha] + [[beta].sub.1] [P0P.sub.t] + [[beta].sub.2]UR + + [[beta].sub.3] [LR.sub.t] + [[beta].sub.4][PS.sub.t] + [[beta].sub.5] [PP0's.sub.t] + [e.sub.t] ... (6)

Property crime ([PC.sub.t]) is a dependent variable along with the independent variables, [POP.sub.t] stands for population density, [UR.sub.t] represents the unemployment rate, [LR.sub.i] stands for the literacy rate, [PS.sub.t] exhibits the police strength and [PPO's.sub.t] stands for the police proclaimed absconders in Punjab during some t year. We will estimate Equation (6) by using suitable econometric technique to get empirical findings of the study.

Since we have a time series data set so we will use the standard practice of checking the data to see if it is stationary or non-stationary by using unit root test. If unit root test (4) discloses that all the variables are stationary at level then study will follow the simple OLS technique. If all the variables are non-stationary at level then study will follow the ARDL approach, finally if all the variables will be stationary at level 1 then the study will follow the Johenson maximum likelihood approach to find the long-run relationship among the dependent and independent variables.

4. DATA, VARIABLE CONSTRUCTION AND ECONOMETRIC ISSUES

A data set related to Punjab during 1978-2012 has been used for empirical investigations. In this regard a few missing values (5) related to unemployment and literacy rate were obtained by calculating averages and using compound interest formula [Jalil (2010)].

4.1. Descriptive Statistics

Table 2 given below narrates the descriptive statistics for the variables used in this study. It becomes clear that in last 34 years, average value of Property Crime (PC) per 1000 persons is 0.59. Magnitude of coefficient of variation depicts that unemployment rate has least variation ranging from 5.5 to 8.6 and population density and PC/1000 are more volatile variables. Except the average value of proclaimed offenders which lies above the middle of data, averages of the rest of the variables in data lie almost in the centre of the data which shows that data is almost equally spread around its mean values.

4.2. Estimation Procedure

Our purposed ADF test indicates that all the variables used in this study are stationary at (1=1), therefore, we apply Johenson Cointegration Approach to the following set of equations:

[PC.sub.t] = [alpha] + [[beta].sub.1][PD.sub.t] + [[beta].sub.2][UR.sub.t] + + [[beta].sub.3] [LR.sub.t] + [[beta].sub.4] [PS.sub.t] + [[beta].sub.5] PPO's + [[epsilon].sub.t]

5. EMPIRICAL RESULTS

Our purposed ADF test indicates that all the variables used in this study are stationary (1=1), therefore, Johenson Cointegration Approach is used for estimation purposes.

5.1. Results of Johansen Cointegration Techniques Trace test indicates four cointegration equations while maximum eigen value test indicates 2 cointegration equations at 5 percent level of significance in property crime modal. Thus the variables of under discussion modal have long run relationship with each other. The null hypothesis stating that there are zero cointegration vectors is rejected.

The results of the estimated model are presented below.

[MATHEMATICAL EXPRESSION NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (7)

5.2. Interpretation and Discussion of the Results

Empirical findings indicate that there is a significantly positive relationship between population density and property crime which is consistent with the findings of Bechdolt Jr. (1975), O'Brien, et al. (1980) and Regoeczi (2003) who also found a positive relationship between property crimes and population density. Consistency of result with the literature of crime and economics allow us to claim that population density is one of the major determinants of property crime in Punjab.

The logic of this result is quite simple that an increase in population density decreases the probability of arrest, which leads to a lower cost for offenders, that motivates them towards property crime. It can also be argued that population density

increases the number of criminals and crime targets and decreases protection of crime targets, which results in a positive relationship between property crime rate and increase in population density.

Secondly, we have found a negative and significant relationship between unemployment and property crime which is consistent with the empirical findings of Entorf and Spengler (2000) who have reported negative estimates for some of the theft crimes. Cantor and Land (1985) also argued that unemployment could have both a positive and negative impact on crime rates. Imrohoroglu (2001) concluded that about 79 percent of the people engaging in criminal activities are employed thus it can be argued that rise in property crimes is not only related to illiterate, unemployed and the poor class of a society but rich, educated, employed and underemployed people can also boost these types of crimes particularly in societies like Punjab.

Consensus of doubt in crime and economics discipline provides some technical reasons of such a negative relationship between unemployment and property crime. In this regard they state that most often unreliable figures of crime and unemployment data are available because official rates of unemployment considerably understate the true numbers of people who are without work. Similarly crime prevention authorities often understate or overstate the true number of registered crimes for their own incentives. The above mentioned discussion reveals that a general belief of positive relationship between unemployment and crime is not necessarily proved true in each study [Orsagh and Witte (1981)].

Thirdly, there is a negative and significant relationship between literacy and property crime rate, which is consistent with the empirical findings of Buonanno (2003), Lochner and Moretti (2001), Usher (1997), Lochner (2007) and Jalil, et al. (2010). The economic rationale behind this empirical finding is that a literate person is relatively more risk averse and forward-looking, which produces a negative association of education with illicit behaviour.

Moreover, current study yields a significantly negative relationship between property crime and per capita police men available to society, which is similar to the findings of Sjoquist (2012), Baltagi (2006), Vollaard (2005), Berkeley, et al. (2012), Kelaher and Sarafidis (2011). It can be argued that an increase in per capita police men available to society increases the probability of arrest that leads to a higher expected cost of crime. It is well known that police effectiveness regarding detection and prevention of crime in Punjab depends upon the geographically focused police practices along with the hot-spots policing. As property crimes are often considered as an urban phenomenon, the presence of free media and influential personalities in these areas compel crime prevention authorities to deter property crimes first. Crime prevention authorities try to depute their most efficient employees to deter the property crime for the sake of departmental reputation and for some of the other job related incentives. Thus this result is not only consistent with the international literature but also quite logical and corresponds to the current culture of most of the institutions of the province.

Finally, current study has reported a significantly positive relationship between property crime and increase in number of police proclaimed offenders in a society. It explicitly means that if number of police proclaimed absconders increase in some society then obviously there will be an increase in property crime rate of that society. This result is quite logical and dynamics of this result need some discussion. When police department declares a person as an absconder then termination of such a person from legitimate labour market is not amazing because a person of such repute is not accepted as a labourer by any person or organisation. Furthermore, fear of arrest, imprisonment and monetary penalties do not allow him to join legitimate labour market for legal earnings. Then it becomes inevitable for such a person to commit crime of theft and snatching for his survival. The above reasoning supports a positive and significant impact of population of proclaimed offenders on property crime rate as a police proclaimed offender has a lower opportunity cost of committing a crime.

It is also very important to note that these persons have not only a low opportunity cost of committing property crime but an adequate criminal know how from their past criminal experiences helps them a lot. All these factors support our positive and significant relationship between number of police proclaimed absconders and property crime rate [Buonnano (2008); Fajnzylber, et al. (2002); Sah (1991)].

CONCLUDING REMARKS

The main objective of the study was to identify the impact of socioeconomic, demographic and deterrent variables on property crime rate of Punjab empirically. For this purpose a time series data set from 1978-2012 was used. Johenson cointegration approach has been applied to test the existence of long run relationships among the variables.

A positive and significant relationship of population density with property crime is first empirical finding of the study, which leads us to believe that population density is the main determinant of crime in Punjab. Although unemployment depicts a negative relationship with property crime. It may be due to the technicalities of data or empirical procedure that study has adopted.

Third major finding of our study is that education plays a vital role to control property crime rate in Punjab as literacy rate has a negative and significant relationship with property crime. The empirical results have proved that there is a deterrent effect of police strength on property crime rate and finally an increase in number of police proclaimed offenders in a society has a positive and significant effect on property crime rate.

Policy Implications

The study brings forth some important policy recommendations regarding crime prevention in Punjab. Authorities should concentrate on controlling population growth rate in Punjab to make the province less dense and there should be effective planning particularly in urban areas regarding infrastructure. Developing new housing colonies near populated areas can be an effective measure to minimise the effect of increasing population densities on property crime rate. Promoting education level can be a valid remedial measure to minimise the criminal behaviour. The state should create not only more job opportunities but also improve the real wages of prevailing jobs, otherwise education without jobs can be a curse as awareness and technicalities of educated individuals can promote white collar crimes. Finally, enhancing the police strength by new recruitments, providing them a better training, better transportation, better tools of communications and advance weapons can be an effective measure in detection and prevention of crime in Punjab.

REFERENCES

Ayse, Imrohoroglu, Antonio Merloy and Peter Rupertz (2002) What Accounts for the Decline in Crime? European Economic Review 46, 1323-1357.

Baltagi, B. H. (2006) Estimating an Economic Model of Crime Using Panel Data from North Carolina. Journal of Applied Econometrics 21:4, 543-547.

Bechdolt Jr., B. V. (1975) Cross-sectional Analyses of Socioeconomic Determinants of Urban Crime. Review of Social Economy 33:2, 132-140.

Becker, G. S. (1968) Crime and Punishment: An Economic Approach. Journal of Political Economy 76:2, 169-217.

Becsi, Z. (1999) Economics and Crime in the States. Economic Review (Q1), 38-56.

Bentham, Jeremy (1879) An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation. Clarendon Press.

Buonanno, P. and D. Montolio (2008) Identifying the Socio-economic and Demographic Determinants of Crime across Spanish Provinces. International Review of Law and Economics 28:2, 89-97.

Cherry, T. L. and J. A. List (2002) Aggregation Bias in the Economic Model of Crime. Economics Letters 75:1, 81-86.

Chiricos, Theodore G. (1987) Rates of Crime and Unemployment: An Analysis of Aggregate Research Evidence. Social Problems, 187-212.

Cook, Philip J. and Gary A. Zarkin (1985) Crime and the Business Cycle. Journal of Legal Studies 14, 115.

David, D. F. (1995) Rational Criminals and Profit-Maximising Police: Gary Becker's Contribution to the Economic Analysis of Law and Law Enforcement. In Mariano Tommasi and Kathryn Ierulli (eds.) The New Economics of Human Behaviour. Cambridge University Press. 43-58.

David, Lawrence Sjoquist (2012) Property Crime and Economic Behaviour: Some Empirical Results. The American Economic Review 63:3.

Ehrlich, I. (1996) Crime, Punishment, and the Market for Offenses. Journal of Economic Perspectives 10:1, 43-67.

Entorf, H. and Spengler (2000) Socioeconomic and Demographic Factors of Crime in Germany, Evidence from Panel Data of the German States. International Review of Law and Economics 20:1, 75-106.

Fajnzlber, P., D. Lederman, and N. Loayza (2002) Inequality and Violent Crime. Journal of Law and Economics 45, 1.

Fleisher, B. (1966) The Effects of Income on Delinquency. American Economic Review 56:1/2, 118-137.

Friedman, D. (1984) Efficient Institutions for the Private Enforcement of Law. The Journal of Legal Studies, 379-397.

Friedman, D. (1995) Rational Criminals and Profit-Maximising Police: The Economic Analysis of Law and Law Enforcement. In M. Tommasi and K. Ierulli (eds.) The New Economics of Human Behaviour.

Gillani, S. Y. M., H. U. Rehman, and A. R. Gill (2009) Unemployment, Poverty, Inflation and Crime Nexus: Cointegration and Causality Analysis of Pakistan. Pakistan Economic and Social Review, 79-98.

Gumus, E. (2004) Crime in Urban Areas: An Empirical Investigation. Akdeniz University Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Faculty Journal/ AkdenizUniversitesilktisadiveldariBilimlerFakultesiDergisi 4:7.

imrohoroglu, A., A. Merlo, and P. Rupert (2004) What Accounts for the Decline in Crime? International Economic Review 45:3, 707-729.

Jabbar, M. S. and H. M. Mohsin (2014) Does Police Strength and Conviction Help to Deter Violent. International Journal of Economics and Empirical Research 2:2, 52-62.

Jalil, H. H. and M. Iqbal (2010) Urbanisation and Crime: A Case Study of Pakistan. The Pakistan Development Review 49:4.

Kelaher, R. and V. Sarafidis (2011) Crime and Punishment Revisited.

Land, K. C., D. Cantor, and S. T. Russell (1995) Unemployment and Crime Rate Fluctuations in the Post-World War II United States: Statistical Time-series Properties and Alternative Models. Crime and Inequality. Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA, 55-79.

Landes, W. M. and R. Posner (1975) The Independent Judiciary in an Interest Group Perspective. Journal of Law and Economics 18, 875-901.

Lochner, L. (2007) Education and Crime. University of Western Ontario 5:8.

Lochner, L. and E. Moretti (2001) The Effect of Education on Crime: Evidence from Prison Inmates, Arrests, and Self-reports (No. w8605). National Bureau of Economic Research.

O'Brien, R. M. (1987) The Interracial Nature of Violent Crimes: A Reexamination. American Journal of Sociology 92:4, 817-835.

Omotor, D. G. (2009) Socio-economic Determinants of Crime in Nigeria. Pakistan Journal of Social Sciences 6:2, 54-59.

Orsagh, T. and A. D. Witte (1981) Economic Status and Crime: Implications for Offender Rehabilitation. Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, 1055-1071.

Paley, William (1785) The Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy. London: T. Davidson, Whitefriars (Reprinted 1822).

Regoeczi, W. C. (2002) The Impact of Density: The Importance of Nonlinearity and Selection on Flight and Fight Responses. Social Forces 81:2, 505-530.

Sah, R. K. (1991) Social Osmosis and Patterns of Crime. Journal of political Economy, 1272-1295.

Sjoquist, D. L. (1973) Property Crime and Economic Behaviour: Some Empirical Results. The American Economic Review, 439-446.

Smith, Adam (1776) The Wealth of Nations. New York: Random House. (Reprinted 1937).

Stigler, G. J. (1974) The Optimum Enforcement of Laws. In Essays in the Economics of Crime and Punishment. 55-67. UM1.

Stigler, George (1970) The Optimum Enforcement of Laws. Journal of Political Economy 78:3, 526-36.

Tommasi, M. and K. Ierulli (Eds.) (1995) The New Economics of Human Behaviour. Cambridge University Press.

Tullock, Gordon (1967) The Welfare Costs of Tariffs, Monopolies, and Theft. Economic Inquiry 5, 224-32.

Usher, D. (1997) Education as Deterrent to Crime. Canadian Journal of Economics 30:2, 367-84.

Vollaard, B. A. (2006) Police Effectiveness: Measurement and Incentives. Rand Corporation.

(1) Police proclaimed absconders are the persons that have committed crime but crime prevention authorities are still unable to arrest these persons. A lot of police reports consider it as a vital reason of high property crime rate.

(2) Efforts made to avoid penalties, arrest, imprisonments or monetary fines etc.

(3) The net pay-off ([[phi].sub.i]) can also be stated as expected utility of committing some crime by a criminal.

(4) Study follows the Augmented Dicky Fuller test [ADF] to check if the data is stationary or not.

(5) We found missing values for those years in which labour force survey had not been published.

Shahzad Mahmood Jabbar <[email protected]> is MPhil (Economics) student at the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, Islamabad. Hasan M. Mohsin <[email protected]> is Head, Department of Econometrics and Statistics at the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, Islamabad.
Table 1

Nature of Explanatory Variables their Brief Definitions
and their Data Sources

Property Crime      Depicts Criminal          Various Issues of
                    Behaviour/It has been     Punjab Development
                    taken as sum of dacoity   Statistics. Various
                    and burglary including    Issues of Annual Crime
                    motor vehicle             Report, DIG Police
                    snatching, motor          (Crime). Punjab.
                    vehicle theft, cattle
                    theft, all other theft.

Population          Demographic/Population    Various Issues of
  Density           of Punjab in per square   Punjab Development
                    miles during some         Statistics.
                    specific year.

Unemployment        Economic/Number of        Various Issues of
  Rate              persons who are           Labour Force Survey.
                    unemployed out of the
                    Total Labour force in
                    Punjab.

Literacy Rate       Socio-economic/A person   Various Issues of
                    is said to be literate    Labour Force Survey.
                    who can read and write
                    his/her name.

Police Strength     Deterrent/The number of   Various Issues of
                    police employees          Annual Administration
                    available to thousand     Report. AIG Police
                    members of Punjab in      (Establishment),
                    some particular year.     Punjab.

Number of Police    Depicts Criminal          Various Issues of
  Proclaimed        Behaviour/number of       Annual Crime Report,
  Offender          police proclaimed         AIG Police (Crime),
                    absconders present in     Punjab.
                    society to 1000 member
                    of Punjab.

Table 2

Descriptive Statistics

                                                         Coefficient
Variables               Mean    S.D.     Min.    Max.    of Variation

PC per 1000 Persons    0.590    0.201   0.300    1.098      34.08
Population Density     337.96   78.46   215.18   470.8      23.21
Unemployment Rate      6.971    1.024   5.464    8.606      14.69
Literacy Rate          45.424   9.59    31.25    60.6       21.11
Police Strength        1.326    0.302   0.838    1.911      22.83
Proc. Offenders         0.21    0.23    0.022    0.88        110

Table 3

Results of the Unit Root Test

                         Only      Trend and
Variable               Intercept   Intercept    Conclusion
  PC
  Level                -0.325323   -3.806383
  1st Difference       -6.227111   -6.218713       I(1)
Population Density
  Level                0.966131    -1.798407
  1st Difference       -8.325482   -8.626124       I(1)
Unemployment
  Level                -2.757306   -2.898596
  1st Difference       -5.029617   -4.974713       I(1)
Literacy Rate
  Level                0.062647    -3.277343
  1st Difference       -6.390288   -6.275866       I(1)
Police Strength
  Level                -0.002685   -2.030985
  1st Difference       -4.144891   -4.067436       I(1)
Proclaimed Offenders
  Level                -2.831661   -0.584165
  1st Difference       -3.867865   -4.872781       I(1)

Table 4

Cointegration Rank Test (Trace) [Property Crime]

Hypothesised                    Trace          0.05
No. of CE(s)    Eigen Value   Statistic   Critical Value   Prob. **

None *             0.97        239.69         103.84         0.00
At most 1 *        0.86        122.36         76.97          0.00
At most 2 *        0.53         60.19         54.08          0.01
At most 3 *        0.49         36.01         35.19          0.04
At most 4          0.25         14.33         20.26          0.27
At most 5          0.15         5.05           9.16          0.28

Table 5

Cointegration Rank Test (Maximum Eigenvalue) [Property Crime]

Hypothesised    Eigen   Max-Eigen        0.05
No. of CE(s)    Value   Statistic   Critical Value   Prob. **

None *          0.97     117.33         40.96          0.00
At most I *     0.86      62.16         34.81          0.00
At most 2       0.53      24.18         28.59          0.16
At most 3       0.49      21.68         22.29          0.06
At most 4       0.25      9.27          15.89          0.40
At most 5       0.15      5.06           9.16          0.28
联系我们|关于我们|网站声明
国家哲学社会科学文献中心版权所有