CRIME E ECONOMIA: UM ESTUDO DAS MICRORREGIÕES MINEIRAS

Abstract

After a brief review of the literature on the economic determinants of crime, this paper investigates the longitudinal and spatial trends in crime rates in Minas Gerais. We then perform an econometric estimation of the determinants of crime rates across the micro-regions of that state. To that end, we consider variables that are representative of the average educational attainment of the population, the degree of income inequality, the rate of urbanization, the degree of social disorganization and the share of youth in the population. We test the robustness of the results by incorporating a variable that represents police presence, a metropolitan area dummy, and alternative proxies for the basic above-mentioned factors. The main results are: higher educational levels imply lower rates of personal crimes but higher rates of property crimes; income inequality is associated to higher rates of homicides and attempted homicides, and to lower rates of vehicle theft; more urbanized micro-regions tend to have higher rape rates; social disor ganization, as measured by the divorce rate, is associated to higher rates of all crimes; a higher share of youth in the total population implies higher crime rates, especially personal crimes.