Citation

Halpern D. Br. J. Criminol. 2001; 41(2): 236-251.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2001, Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, Publisher Oxford University Press)

DOI

10.1093/bjc/41.2.236

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Cross-national social attitude data from the World Values Surveys (1981-1983, 1990) were analysed to explore whether values can explain' crime. Mirroring patterns of offending and in contrast to other values, tolerance for a sub-group of materially self-interested attitudes were found to be significantly higher in men, younger people, larger cities, and had increased over time. These self-interested values were also found to be associated with victimization rates at the national level as measured by the International Crime Victimisation Surveys. Multivariate models incorporating self-interested values, economic inequality, social trust and the interaction between these variables explained two-thirds of variance in victimization at the national level. Implications and contrast with the previous literature are discussed.