Socio-economic and geographic profiling of crime in Chile

Gutiérrez M; Núñez, J.; Rivera J.

Abstract

Many empirical studies of crime assume that victims and perpetrators live in a single geographical unit, the implication being that the socio-economic characteristics of victims' places of residence can be treated as determinants of crime. This study offers an alternative approach which consists in measuring crime by the proportion of alleged offenders in the whole population and treating the characteristics of their home communes as socio-economic causes of criminal behaviour. The conclusion is that those charged with crimes present a high degree of geographic mobility. In the case of economically motivated crimes, the evidence partly supports Becker's propositions. Lastly, we show that the number of people charged with crimes tends to be greater in communes that have low incomes, a larger police presence, a predominance of urban areas with higher levels of education and a geographical location in the north of the country, which to some degree bears out the findings of other studies on Chile.

Más información

Título según WOS: Socio-economic and geographic profiling of crime in Chile
Título según SCOPUS: Socio-economic and geographic profiling of crime in Chile
Título de la Revista: CEPAL REVIEW
Número: 98
Editorial: Cepal Review
Fecha de publicación: 2009
Página de inicio: 159
Página final: 174
Idioma: English
Notas: ISI, SCOPUS