Exposure to Property Crime as a Consequence of Poverty

This paper investigates whether and why the poor are more exposed to property crime than are the non-poor, despite the reasonable assumption that poor people lack or have little valuable property that can be stolen. If poor people are more exposed to property crime than those who are not poor, there...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Larsson, Daniel (Author)
Format: Electronic/Print Article
Language:English
Published: 2006
In: Journal of Scandinavian studies in criminology and crime prevention
Online Access: Volltext (doi)
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Availability in Tübingen:Present in Tübingen.
IFK: In: Z 181
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Summary:This paper investigates whether and why the poor are more exposed to property crime than are the non-poor, despite the reasonable assumption that poor people lack or have little valuable property that can be stolen. If poor people are more exposed to property crime than those who are not poor, there are needs for explanations. The paper investigates two plausible reasons: the significance of the neighbourhood character and routine activities. The results in the paper indicates that poor people are more exposed to property crimes related to the residence, independent of neighbourhood character and routine activities, while exposure to property crimes related to vehicles depends more on the family situation and age than on poverty per se. When it comes to other kinds of property crime, poor people do not seem to be more exposed than do the nonpoor. That poor people are more exposed to property crime related to their residence, and that there are problem areas explaining why, is worrisome. Those who are poor are often vulnerable to other social problems that tend to exclude them from ordinary living patterns. To find out the relation between poverty and exposure to property crimes related to residence is of importance for crime prevention and probably an important step to prevent those who are poor from being further excluded from society
ISSN:1404-3858
DOI:10.1080/14043850500342009