This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Savage, J. Articles by Danner, M. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Economic Assistance and Crime

A Cross-National Investigation

American University, Washington DC, USA, jsavage{at}american.edu

Richard R. Bennett

American University, Washington DC, USA, bennett{at}american.edu

Mona Danner

Old Dominion University, Norfolk, USA, mdanner{at}odu.edu

Many countries struggle with the question of appropriate social welfare spending. Here we test several hypotheses about the dynamics between social welfare spending and crime. We do so using pooled, cross-national time-series data. Our findings suggest that per capita social welfare spending is associated with lower rates of both theft and homicide. Time lagged analysis suggests that the current level of social welfare spending, not that of recent years, accounts for any possible suppression of crime. The data also suggest that, whereas high homicide rates do not appear to inspire increased social welfare generosity, lagged measures of theft rates are associated with subsequent increases in social welfare spending among high theft countries.

Key Words: Comparative • Crime • Cross-National • Social Welfare • Violence.

European Journal of Criminology, Vol. 5, No. 2, 217-238 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/1477370807087645


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?