Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the Department of Criminology at the University of Zululand, 1974. / The present investigation is a result of the following considerations which are of interest to the researcher: In the first. place, not much research has been conducted on the problem of crime among the Africans in South Africa. There is thus very little published material on this subject. Furthermore, the problem of crime among the Africans has up till now mostly been investigated by white• researchers, and in urban areas. While their efforts are highly commendable, one problem facing white researchers conducting research of this nature is that they have in most cases interpreted the criminality of the Africans in terms of their own standards. 1 Proximity to the area of research (Mtunzini) is another factor that has prompted the investigator to undertake this project. / Human Sciences Research Council

Submitted to the Faculty of Arts in fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree Mater of Arts in the Department of Criminal Justice at the University of Zululand, South Africa, 2009. / This study entails an empirical inquiry of the police as a fear reduction agency in two rural communities in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. It is based on data forthcoming from a non-probability sample selected from Mthatha and Butterworth respectively, according to purposive Judgemental) sampling procedures. A pre-coded, dosed-structured questionnaire has been implemented as data capturing instrument. Statistical outcomes are based on the opinions, perceptions and attitudes of 300 respondents randomly selected from those two areas. The study resembles an exploratory, descriptive analysis of dependent variables, cross-correlated with one prominent independent variable: gender and described in terms of frequency distributions. This investigation does not entail a comparative study. The study has two focal points: fear of crime and the role of the police in reducing fear. The safety (physical sense of protection) and security (psychological sense of peace) of each individual is a basic human right in terms of the Constitution, entrenched in the Bill of Rights. Individual safety and security are basic to the quality of life in any given society. If the quality of life is affected by crime and fear of criminal victimisation, then both conditions should be viewed as a social problem. The main objective of the study revolves around expanding our substantive knowledge of fear of crime. The study further seeks to establish whether selected priority crimes contribute to the respondents' fear of crime. Additionally, it is curious about differences in variations of fear of crime measures rating of certain crime measures as a social problem and whether the role of the police is conducive to the reduction of the fear of crime. Research techniques employed include literature study, questionnaire, random sampling and Chi-square test. Based on data contained in statistical tables, the following emerge: • Gender attributes appear to be a good predictor of fear of crime • Selected serious personal and property crimes and previous criminal victimization are posing a threat to respondents' safety and security which may result in fear of crime. • When cross-related with measures of fear of crime, significant differences between male and female respondents emerged; females are more fearful than males. • Acquisition of self-protection measures to allay fear of crime are slightly more popular among female respondents who opted to curtail their movements, leave the lights and TV on, but were less inclined to acquire a firearm. • Female respondents had more positive contact with the police than males and somewhat more inclined to work with the police. Reconsidering mission statements, enhancing police-public cooperation, appointing and training Community Police Officers, etc. are a few recommendations of this study.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / The rate of criminal involvement of women has historically been lower than that of men; however, that is changing. Changes in societal norms and progress toward gender equality have broadened the scope of female behaviors, and modified traditional female responsibilities and roles in the home potentially influencing their participation in the crime market. However, the bulk of research on criminal activity is based on the male experience. Thus, less is known about female criminals and their motivations. A closer look at women’s trajectories into crime therefore will likely yield important insights. This study investigates the descent into drugs and crime from the perspective of women who have previously been charged with crimes beyond simple possession of illegal substances. The key interest lies in shedding light on the experiences that set these women on the path to criminal activity. Specifically, this project aims to explore what the women themselves perceive as precursors to their criminal experience. Our findings suggest that female descent into crime may run contrary to many widely held beliefs, such as: that criminal careers begin in adolescence; that women become participants in crime through the influence of significant others; and that criminals come from lower class households.

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Crime among youth is a social problem in Sweden and a much-debated topic in politics lately. The main purpose of the study is to identify and problematize the perceptions of Stefan Löfven's (2019–2021) and Ulf Kristersson's (2022) governments, which are the basis for their problem representations of youth crime in Sweden. To be able to carry out the study, we will mostly use Carol Bacchi's discourse analytical method and theory called "What's the problem represented to be?" which is abbreviated WPR. The questions we have prepared regarding the study's purpose and analysis method are as follows: How do Stefan Löfven and Ulf Kristersson governments represent the crime problem among youth? What perceptions about criminality among youth underlie the government’s problem representations? What is left unproblematic in the problem representations? The conclusions are that Stefan Löfven's government focuses a lot on rehabilitating criminal youth, the focus is thus on the underlying socio-economic causes of the problem of crime. What is left invisible in the problem representation thus shows how victims of crime are affected by the criminal acts of criminal youth. Ulf Kristersson's government sees the problem as that victims of crime are not treated fairly; therefore, criminal youth must be locked up to reduce illegal activity. What is thus made invisible is how these criminal youth are ultimately affected by this measure. With this, we concluded that both governments’ problem representations are based on many shortcomings and ignorance. This is because many important issues according to previous research, such as individual risk factors, are left unproblematic in the problem representations.

Thesis advisor: Arthur Lewbel / This dissertation consists of three related chapters. A unifying feature throughout all is a focus on the issues in the economics of crime, specifically in how different factors affect different types of index crimes. The first chapter, a collaboration with Abby Hong, examines the role of the stand-your-ground law in driving first-degree and second-degree murder rates. The second chapter, a collaboration with Benjamin Ferri, examines how the two ends of the income distribution impact emotional gain crime and financial gain crime. Both chapters one and two examine how different variables affect crime, and both have a theoretical part and an empirical part. The third chapter looks into measurement issues in crime. Specifically, it considers the impact of a change in data collection methods on the Uniform Crime Report (UCR). The first chapter, “Self-defense Regulations and Crime: Evidence from the Stand Your Ground Law,” provides a theoretical model of crime escalation when governments relax self-defense regulations. We then test the model with an empirical analysis of the “stand-your-ground” (SYG) laws’ impact on planned and unplanned murders. The game theoretical model shows that relaxing self-defense regulations can increase the arming of crime victims. It also increases the arming of offenders in crimes that lead to unplanned murders. If planned murder offenders are over-confident, then their level of arms increases as well. We then use a difference-in-differences (DiD) model to test these implications. We find that consistent with the model, SYG laws in the US increase the planned murder rate by 7.6% and the unplanned murder rate by 10.4%, on average. Also, the effect size increases over time, highlighting the persistence of the impact. The paper illustrates how interactions between victims and offenders result in unintended consequences of self-defense regulations. It also encourages policymakers to take into account criminal behavior when making policy decisions. The second chapter, “The Distinct Roles of Poverty and Higher Earnings in Motivating Crime,” develops a new model that articulates how Poverty (the lower tail of the earnings distribution) and Earnings (the upper tail) enter into equilibrium crime rates. In our model, individuals in Poverty have less to lose in the context of criminal punishment, so are less averse to committing crimes in general. The presence of high Earnings (therefore things worth stealing) heightens the expected gain to offenders per crime - but specifically in terms of financial gain, not emotional gain. We estimate our model on a comprehensive panel of U.S. Commuting Zones (1980-2016), deploying novel Shift-Share instruments to correct for reverse causality (of crime on the earnings distribution). Corroborating our hypothesis, we find that high Earnings plays a much larger role in driving crimes that yield financial gain to the offender (various forms of theft) than it does for crimes of emotional gain; while Poverty is a driving force equally across both types of crime. In each case, not accounting for reverse causality would underestimate both effects, often by more than double. The third and final chapter, “Crime Reporting Standards and Reported Crime,” This paper explores data discrepancies in the Uniform Crime Report (UCR) before and after the adoption and conversion of the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS). The FBI starts publishing the UCR in 1930 to understand crime trends in the United States. The UCR is published under the Summary Reporting System (SRS) until the 1990s, when the NIBRS is developed to collect more detailed data. The NIBRS is then converted to “synthetic SRS” and concatenated to historical SRS data when it enters the UCR. It uses a staggered event study design based on the year in which the agency switches from the SRS to the NIBRS. I find two factors that contribute to a large and statistically significant increase in reported crime for agencies that adopt the NIBRS compared with agencies that have not: the data conversion process and a change in reporting practices. When I convert the NIBRS to synthetic SRS based on published criteria, I observe a smaller and statistically insignificant increase in assault cases. However, this alternative conversion process does not improve the difference-in-differences (DiD) effects for total crime, murder, robbery, burglary, and theft, highlighting the fact that data from the NIBRS is more complete and more timely. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2023. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Economics.

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