TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2005//
TI  - Inequality and Violent Crime: Evidence from Data on Robbery and Violent Theft
JO  - Journal of peace research
A1  - Neumayer, Eric
SP  - 101
EP  - 112
VL  - 42
IS  - 1
N2  - This article argues that the link between income inequality and violent property crime might be spurious, complementing a similar argument in prior analysis by the author on the determinants of homicide. In contrast, Fajnzylber, Lederman & Loayza provide seemingly strong and robust evidence that inequality causes a higher rate of both homicide and robbery/violent theft, even after controlling for country-specific fixed effects. The results in the present article suggest that inequality is not a statistically significant determinant, unless either country-specific effects are not controlled for or the sample is artificially restricted to a small number of countries. The reason for the link between inequality and violent property crime being spurious is that income inequality is likely to be strongly correlated with country-specific fixed effects, such as cultural differences. A high degree of inequality might be socially undesirable for any number of reasons, but that it causes violent crime is far from proven.<p />
LA  - 
SN  - 0022-3433
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0022343305049669
ID  - ref1
ER  -