Is poverty the mother of crime? Evidence from homicide rates in China

Abstract

Income inequality is blamed for being the main driver of violent crime by the majority of the literature. However, earlier work on the topic largely neglects the role of poverty and income levels as opposed to income inequality. The current paper uses all court verdicts for homicide cases in China between 2014 and 2016, as well as various inequality measures calculated from 2005 mini census data together with a host of control variables to shed light on the relationship at the detailed Chinese prefecture-level. The results suggest that it is the poverty and low income level, rather than income inequality, that is positively related to homicide rates. We show that the internal rural-urban migration from more violent localities contributes to the destination cities' homicide rates. The poverty-homicide association implies that instead of "relative deprivation", "absolute deprivation" is mainly responsible for violent crime. Poverty is the mother of crime. -Marcus Aurelius (121-180AD), Emperor of the Roman Empire.

An Analysis of Economic Determinants and Crime in Selected Gauteng Local Municipalities

“…Kaylen and Pridemore [16] posit that poverty causes homicide tendencies and concluded that poverty and homicide are inseparable. This is in line with the study done by Dong et al [15] who examined the relationship among income inequality, poverty and crime in China. The study focused on homicide cases from 2014 to 2016 and found that low-income households commit homicides crime compared to middle and upper earners.…”

“…This is shown by a 1 percent increase in poverty which leads to a 0.69 percent in crime activities. Cheteni et al [7] and Dong et al [15] also share the same sentiments that poor people have a higher probability of committing crime. This is also in line with the strain theory which stipulates that individuals with the low level of income tend to be frustrated when they are surrounded by those with high level of income [10].…”

“…A relationship between poverty and crime was also investigated by Cheteni et al [7], Dong et al [15], Kaylen and Pridemore [16] and Hooghe et al [17]. For instance, Cheteni et al [7] examined the association between drug-crime and poverty in South Africa.…”

Protecting Against Delinquency in Early Adolescence With Nonverbal Intelligence and Neighborhood Social Capital

“…Unlike risk factors, which code for general risk, protective factors are specific to a particular class, category, or type of risk. Thus, while neighborhood social capital may be ineffective in moderating the risk of conduct problems on early delinquency, it may be effective in moderating the risk of specific social, environmental, and structural conditions; neighborhood disorder (Sampson et al, 2002), criminal victimization (Jennings et al, 2012), and poverty (Dong, Egger, & Guo, 2020) being but three examples. What this suggests is that the term protective factor may be a misnomer and that a more risk-relevant term like protective effect may be more descriptive.…”

Humanity Values on Reconciliation in Criminal Law: Indonesian Criminal Law Renewal Perspective

“…It is as shown by Baomin Dong et all that poverty and low-income levels are the causes of crime, even Baomin Dong agrees with the opinion of the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius who called it "Poverty is the mother of crime." 25 Yozi Aulia Rahman and Affandi Dwi Prasetyo said that the minimum salary has a significant effect on crime rates, which means that if the minimum salary is low, the crime rate tends to rising and vice versa. They do crimes such as theft, it is to meet the necessities of life.…”