A Research On Relations Between Economic Development And Crime

The annually growing crime rate in current China has not only harmed social stability, but also affected sustained economic development. After the founding of the nation, China experienced a historical period of lower crime rate, when, however, socio-economic development was very slow and even stagnant. Since reform and open policy, economy has been growing considerably fast. Meanwhile, crime rate also soared continuously. Is higher crime rate the inevitable cost of economic growth? The developmental facts of some countries and areas disprove that hypothesis. Is it possible for China to achieve fast economic growth while maintaining relatively low crime rate? At present, domestic researches on this issue mainly concentrate on criminology, with the post-reform-and-open relations between economic development and crime diversity as the subject of the study. These researches discuss the influence on crime by such economic systems and policies as market economy system, system of income division, policy of aiding the poor, employment policy, regional economic development policy, population movement policy, and urbanization policy. Canonical methodology is chiefly applied. Two limitations exist in the current situation of the research. First, all the economic systems and policies implemented in economic development after the reform and open policy are the results of transforming those issued before 1978'. How did they affect crime before the reformation? It is more convincing to reach conclusion after conducting comparison between how the changes in economic systems and policies influence crime before and after the reformation. Second, canonical research needs to be supplemented by empirical study. This thesis primarily applies empirical analysis, combined with canonical analysis. Based on indexes of economic development and statistics of crime rate after the founding of the nation, utilizing relevant theories of economics, legal science and sociology, the author analyzes the correlation between crime rate and such factors as economic growth, division of income, poverty, unemployment, regional economic gap, movement of population, and urbanization in different economic systems. Thereby, the author constructs a multi-dimensional linear regression model involving crime rate and variables of economic factors, demonstrating how various economic factors influence crime rate in different economic systems. Through the analysis of the cross-section data of 31 provinces and kneading panel data of 15 province over 15 years, the author also examines the statistical relations between crime and economic growth, population movement, and the urbanization in different areas, and further proves the impact of economic factors on change in crime.The layout of this paper is as follows:The first chapter:Introduction. The author elaborates the background, purpose and significance of this research, reviews and evaluates related researches domestically and internationally, sets the methodology, and points out the innovation of this study.The second chapter:Theoretical rationale of the study of relations between economic development and crime. The author introduces the"economic man"theory of economics, social lamination, flowing and conflict theory of sociology, as well as rational choice theory, tense theory and control theory of criminology. In the light of the theories above, the following hypothetical assumptions are stated: First, a certain relation exists between economic development and crime, and the influence of economic development on crime has effect through economic system and policy, as well as social control, and other media. Second, some specific factors in economic development, like the issues of economic growth, income gap, population movement, poverty, unemployment, regional economic gap, and urbanization, may have effect on crime.The third chapter:Analysis of the total quantity of crime and diverse changes in crime since the founding of the nation. The author defines and classifies crime as is required in the study, and historically reviews crime in new China. The author also summarizes the rule of crime change .The fourth chapter:Correlation analysis of economic growth, division of income and crime. After Correlation analysisof economic growth and crime, it is discovered that economic growth and the quantity change of economic crime are highly correlated. Economic growth may prevent, limit and reduce direct confrontation of individuals and groups against social system and social order. Gini's coefficient is selected as the measuring criterion in the analysis of the change of income differential since the founding of the nation. After Correlation analysisof relations between income differential and crime, it is discovered that they are highly correlated, namely, growing income differential can cause crime rate to rise.The fifth chapter:Correlation analysis of poverty, unemployment and crime. The author analyzes the changing situation of poverty incidence rate from foundation of China. Then the paper obtained the conclusion: poverty, especially relative poverty, has crucial effect on crime occurrence, compared with absolute poverty; High unemployment rate and imperfect unemployment insurance system are substantial cause of rising crime rate. The author analyzes the changing situation of unemployment from foundation of China. From what we have mentioned above we can see that high unemployment rate and imperfect unemployment ?insurance system are substantial cause of rising crime rate. Difference in regional economic development is closely related to the change in the volume of crime.The sixth chapter:Correlation analysis of regional economic gap, mobile population, urbanization and crime. The author analyzes the changing situation of the difference in regional economy from foundation of China. Difference in regional economic development is closely related to the change in the volume of crime. Generally speaking, the absolute crime volume and increase rate are higher in more economically developed areas. The author analyzes the changing situation of scales of population flow and crime from foundation of China. The scale of population flow resulting from regional economy difference provides the potential main body of crime, while ever growing cities provide more space for crime; The crime rate among transient population is far higher than that among non-transient population. he author analyzes the changing situation of the level of urbanization and crime from foundation of China. Through detailed correlation between urbanization and crime, the author think that the scale of cities is linked with crime volume. To be exact, the bigger a city is, the faster crime volume grows.The seventh chapter:Empirical analysis of relations between economic development and crime. The author collects economic data and crime data of 53 years from 1955 to 2007, and constructs a multi-dimensional linear regression model with eight variables using range regression analysis method, comprehensively analyzing how various economic factors influence crime rate in different economic systems. The measurement result indicates that before reform and open policy, what affected crime rate most was income differential, while GDP growth could cause crime rate to drop. After reform and open policy, however, though GDP growth still caused crime rate to drop, the effect was obviously weaker compared to that before the policy. After reform and open policy, income differential, the scale of population movement, and the expansion of urbanization all caused crime rate to rise. The author analyzes the cross-section data of 31 provinces and kneading board data of 15 province over 15 years, examines the statistical relations between crime and economic growth, population movement, and the urbanization in different areas, and applies relevant theories to analyze how regional economic difference influences crime.The eighth chapter: Conclusion and suggested policies. In accordance with comprehensive analysis of influential factors and crime in the process of economic development, the following major conlusions are drawn: There are inseparable relations between economic development and crime. Economic growth itself may cause crime rate to drop, but the effect of economic growth on the decline of crime rate is often counteracted by the effect of other factors on the rise of crime rate; Widening of income gap is always a ?substantial cause of crime rate rise in whatever economic system; Poverty triggers crime. Relative poverty has stronger effect on crime rate rise, compared with absolute poverty. The unemployed face dual pressures economically and psychologically, in addition to imperfect unemployment relief system, which induce them to commit crime; Regional economic difference affects the distribution of crime serves as one of the reasons for crime rate to rise; Failure to control flowing population may cause crime rate to rise; Urban scale and urbanization level have significant effect on crime. Based on the conclusions above, the author presents corresponding proposals in terms of accelerating economic construction, abridging income gap, perfecting social security system, rationally controlling urbanization scale, and initializing as well as improving urban community prevention and control system. The limitations of the research and the direction of further study are also included.