Other Side of Criminality: a Theoretical and Empirical Investigation into the Relationship Between Prosperity and Criminality

• NCJ Number: 131745
• Author(s): J J M van Dijk
• Date Published: 1991
• Length: 48 pages
• Sale Source: Gouda Quint Bv
• Publication Type: Presentation
• Country: Netherlands
• Note: Acceptance speech by the author upon appointment to a Chair at the Rijksuniversiteit te Leiden.

Annotation

The speaker reviews Bonger's theory of the economic relationship between crime and prosperity and relates it to longitudinal and cross dimensional studies to illustrate the timeliness of criminological studies and their usefulness to anyone who studies any aspect of society.

Abstract

His basis for empirical evidence comes from longitudinal police data gathered in western Europe in the second half of the 20th century; the cross dimensional data comes from police statistics from the United States. Results of the comparison of Bonger's theory and this realworld data indicate that there is a negative relationship between individual prosperity and a fluctuating positive/negative relationship between crime and unemployment/prosperity at the macro-level. The speaker concludes that criminology is useful to the jurist, the academic, and the statistician while at the same time it may encompass the works of sociologists, philosophers, and psychologists. 4 figures and 140 references