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Economic Conditions and Crime in Sweden - Do Unemployment and Income Inequality Predict Property Crime?

Uebel, Madeleine LU (2019) NEKH04 20191
Department of Economics
Abstract
Recent studies have repeatedly emphasized that property crime is a consequence of unemployment as well as income inequality. Reported property crimes and the rate of unemployment have steadily been decreasing in Sweden. In contrast, the inequalities in income have increased considerably. This study therefore aims to determine whether the decrease in reported property crimes partially is caused by the decrease in unemployment and whether an increase in property crimes can be expected as a result of increasing inequality. Particularly, this study analyzes whether unemployment and income inequality predict property crime in modern time, using a panel of Sweden’s municipalities for the period 2011- 2017. The result of this research does not go... (More)
Recent studies have repeatedly emphasized that property crime is a consequence of unemployment as well as income inequality. Reported property crimes and the rate of unemployment have steadily been decreasing in Sweden. In contrast, the inequalities in income have increased considerably. This study therefore aims to determine whether the decrease in reported property crimes partially is caused by the decrease in unemployment and whether an increase in property crimes can be expected as a result of increasing inequality. Particularly, this study analyzes whether unemployment and income inequality predict property crime in modern time, using a panel of Sweden’s municipalities for the period 2011- 2017. The result of this research does not go in line with the findings of previous studies as it indicate that unemployment and income inequality have no effect on property crime. This result is to be understood as either there is no relation to be found for the investigated time period or that no relation is possible to find due to various aspects of the dataset. With other words, the result is inconclusive which hence suggests for future research on this topic. (Less)
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author
Uebel, Madeleine LU
supervisor
organization
course
NEKH04 20191
year
type
M2 - Bachelor Degree
subject
keywords
Crime, Unemployment, Income Inequality, Gini-coefficient, Municipality
language
English
id
8982228
date added to LUP
2019-08-08 10:33:57
date last changed
2019-08-08 10:33:57
@misc{8982228,
  abstract     = {{Recent studies have repeatedly emphasized that property crime is a consequence of unemployment as well as income inequality. Reported property crimes and the rate of unemployment have steadily been decreasing in Sweden. In contrast, the inequalities in income have increased considerably. This study therefore aims to determine whether the decrease in reported property crimes partially is caused by the decrease in unemployment and whether an increase in property crimes can be expected as a result of increasing inequality. Particularly, this study analyzes whether unemployment and income inequality predict property crime in modern time, using a panel of Sweden’s municipalities for the period 2011- 2017. The result of this research does not go in line with the findings of previous studies as it indicate that unemployment and income inequality have no effect on property crime. This result is to be understood as either there is no relation to be found for the investigated time period or that no relation is possible to find due to various aspects of the dataset. With other words, the result is inconclusive which hence suggests for future research on this topic.}},
  author       = {{Uebel, Madeleine}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Economic Conditions and Crime in Sweden - Do Unemployment and Income Inequality Predict Property Crime?}},
  year         = {{2019}},
}