NCJ Number
136380
Journal
Journal of Quantitative Criminology Volume: 8 Issue: 1 Dated: special issue (March 1992) Pages: 113-131
Date Published
1992
Length
19 pages
Annotation
Dutch criminality and its relation to the performance of police and justice have only been recently analyzed at the macro level, and this approach is a useful supplement to analyses at the micro level which are more common in Dutch criminological research.
Abstract
In the macro model, the conduct of potential criminals and victims is the result of individual preferences that are related to social circumstances. The level of criminality results from interaction between the conduct of criminals and victims. The conduct of potential victims is influenced by their perception of the risk of being a victim which, in turn, may be related to the level of criminality. Potential criminals may be influenced by their perception of the probability and severity of punishment. The macro model was analyzed in two ways, first by a cross-sectional analysis comparing Dutch municipalities or regions with each other and second by a time-series analysis for the Netherlands as a whole from 1950 to 1982. The author concludes that per capita number of youth, divorced people, and unemployment contribute significantly to the crime rate. Police strength and crime solving rates are important factors as well. These results, however, depend on the crime type involved. An analysis of the production process of the police reveals that detecting one more case of driving under the influence is far more expensive than solving one more other crime or handling one more traffic accident. A cost-benefit approach is used to evaluate different strategies of allocating more resources to the police. 13 references, 7 tables, and 2 figures