How The Recession is Impacting Crime
Could it be that at a time when many of us fear with our wallets, we now have reason to fear for our safety? Unfortunately, the answer for some may be yes. Emerging research from sociologists, journalists, trade journals, and law enforcement suggest that certain types of crime are rising and began rising in early 2009/late 2008 when the pains of the recession first began being felt. This has led some analysts to investigate a link between the two, theorizing that the anxiety, suffering, and loss of the financial meltdown has made criminals more likely to commit crimes.
Worst of all, law enforcement appears to be simultaneously downsizing. Washington DC-based newspaper McClatchy reports that, “Declining sales and property taxes are forcing law enforcement agencies across the country to postpone buying equipment, cut recruitment classes, freeze overtime and redeploy staff to save money.” To that, the Police Executive Research Forum adds that the police departments surveyed were planning 6.24% cuts in overall funding.
Examining the crimes that are reported or theorized to be on the rise, it is not difficult to see how they might be driven (at least partly) by economic despair.
Robbery & Burglary
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USA Today has reported that burglary and robbery are on the rise, increasing 39% and 32% respectively so far in 2009. Alarming to be sure - and it makes one wonder what might cause such a huge increase.
Social psychologists like University of Nottingham professor Richard Wilkinson study the link between unequal status and violence. Their studies have shown that, as humans we naturally affiliate with groups of similar status (wealth, power and prosperity). These are known as our in-groups. Our out-groups are the groups to which we are not equal to in terms of status and thus do not belong to. Wilkinson argues that conflicts between these groups explain a great deal of violence, going so far as to say that the, “…most well-established environmental determinant of levels of violence is the scale of income differences between rich and poor.” Seeing as these differences have been widening ever since fall 2008, it is not a stretch to imagine this having at least a minimal relation to the recent rising rate of burglary and robbery.
