ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the theories that relate crime to economic conditions, and report the main results given in recent papers. It explores data and the trends in criminal activity in both the United States and England and Wales. The chapter presents empirical analysis, which is used to derive the long and short-run relationship, and discusses their results. In recent years there has been an extensive discussion in the Social Science literature concerning the empirical relationship between economic conditions and crime. One of the fundamental dilemmas confronting studies interested in establishing the determinants of crime is the role which economic conditions play in explaining variations in criminal activity. The chapter aims to determine the influence of several factors, mainly economic conditions, on criminal activity. It estimates the effect of the economic conditions on robbery, burglary and motor vehicle theft rates in the United States in the post-war period.
