Development and Crime Challenges for the Future (From Seventh United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders, Milan, Italy, 1985, P 1-30, Leona Jorgensen and Jack Sandry, eds. See NCJ-100063)

• NCJ Number: 100064
• Author(s): S K Mukherjee
• Date Published: 1985
• Length: 30 pages
• Sale Source: Australian Institute of Criminology
• Publication Type: Survey (Cross-Cultural)
• Language: English
• Country: Australia

Annotation

This chapter, using United Nations statistical data, examines relationships between social, economic, and cultural relationships between social, economic, and cultural variables in 12 developed and developing countries, with particular emphasis on the relationship between economic conditions and crime in Australia.

Abstract

For Canada and the United States, high rates of violent and property crime coincide with a medium population growth rate, high expenditures on education, high doctor and television to population ratios, high per capita gross product, and medium daily newspaper circulation. In Nigeria and Egypt, noncrime variables indicate slow development, and rates of aggravated theft and fraud are low. Economic growth and property crimes appear to be related in Germany and Sweden, but not in Japan. An examination of longitudinal data on unemployment and gross domestic product per capita in Australia shows that economic growth between 1900 and the present has had a varied impact on crime. Property crimes increased sharply during major economic setbacks such as the depression, as well as during periods of economic growth. Further, the increase in burglary was closely linked with economic growth; production of and accessibility to increasing consumer goods led to a shift in the targets of burglary. Difficulties in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of social statistics are discussed, as are the uses of systematic statistical analysis in understanding crime. 14 references. (Author abstract modified).