Crime and Punishment: An Economic Approach - Research Paper Example

First Draft: What are the main factors influencing crime rate change in China from 1970 to 2010. Abstract The following research will place much emphasis on the crime rates that were experienced in the duration of the year 1970 all the way to 2010. Among the factors that have been attributed to this topic are macroeconomic factors. This includes the level of income earned by individuals, inequality of resources distributed among the citizens of China and the increased number of unemployment in the country. The research is outlined in the following strategy where there will be an introduction where there will be a brief summary of what the literature will aim at discussing and researching on. The critical review will provide a variety of information giving different views of various authors on factors affecting crime change in China. The thesis of the research will support the research on factors affecting crime change which will be how crimes affect the economy of China. The overall objective of the research will be to determine most of the factors attributed have been macroeconomic meaning the economy plays a role in such a discussion. With the literature review given, there has been seen to be a relationship that exists between them and crime. The participants involved in the research are citizens of China both low and high income earners. The measures were taken with the help of an economist, the questionnaires were fairly distributed as they touched on both sides of the groups. The research was conducted in different location in China and at different months. Taking different months indicated different economic seasons hence this research was conducted in January, April and November. Data collection procedures, most of the Chinese citizens interviewed claimed income and resource inequality to be the major causes of crime rate. The preliminary analysis indicates that different factors have attributed to the crime and finally there will be a summary of the whole research undertaken. Crime is an unending topic when it comes to the development of any economy. China as a country has fought hard to identify the factors that have been seen to be the root cause of crime rate and the changes that have been experienced from 1970 to 2010.Various authors have also seen this topic to be of importance and discussed it using different perspectives. China has had its fair share of crimes and this has brought down the economic situation in the country. Two of the major issues going to be discussed are inequality in resource distribution and income. There exists a relationship between crime and social relationships as both have a link towards macroeconomic factors. Crime has been a major cause of any country’s non development as it has been attributed to inequality in resources spread in the country where equality has not been taken with much concern .Due to this; there are increased levels of poverty which leaves most individuals in a country have no alternatives but to look for alternative ways. Crime has been said to be a bug that hinders economic growth in any country and china being a developing country is no exception. This from the year 1970 to 2010 had brought about elements that had driven behind the economy and this had a reflection of mostly the macroeconomic factors that the country had faced. Some of the factors include the level of income that individuals earned in the country. There was a correlation because in instances where individuals are wealthy, it tended to mean that some people were satisfied with their lifestyles but this led to a cost benefit analysis where there was a gap which happened to increase everyday between the rich and the poor. By having individuals being given the same level of income or basing according to their hardship, this meant bridging the gap hence reduced crimes (Masih and Masih, 1095). In order to have equal distribution of income, the Chinese government came up with ways in which wealth would be distributed in order to influence reduced rate of crimes. In the urge to bridge the gap between the rich and the poor, great costs had been attributed to having a business legally making the poor have minimal chances of starting a business. As stated by Becker (160), some of the factors that were claimed were lack of money which made people prefer doing criminal activities as though the activities were illegal; it served as a way to earn their livelihood in an easy way. Masih and Masih (1094), in their argument states that unemployment goes without mentioning where every country not only in China is a victim of this. Many citizens at that time claimed being involved in the crime was as a result of unemployment and since they had to cater for their daily living, they had to make ends meet (China Daily, 26) .The youth were most vulnerable to this factor and due to pressure back in their family, they opted to indulge in crimes. This made unemployment have a positive relationship with crime. This research sought to see the relationship that existed between macroeconomic factors and the crime rate changes in the country of China. The thesis of the research is how crimes affect the economy of china. In his thesis on ‘Economics of Crime’, Chen Yill (2010) sees criminals to be human beings with an economic rationale and the option of participating crime to be a choice people decide for themselves. He also mentions that many are the times people make quick decisions when they have little or nothing to lose. Inequality in resource distribution as he says poses a major threat in the level of security .Taking a country like China, this has brought about an increase in the earning gap where only few citizens have secured a job while the bigger percentage are those that are unemployed. The discussion of factors that affect crime rate is important not only in the field that I am taking but also to citizens who have been victims affected by the crimes. Most of the factors attributed have been macroeconomic meaning the economy plays a role in such a discussion. With the literature review given, there has been seen to be a relationship that exists between them and crime. With the help of the discussion above, effective approaches and evaluations will be undertaken by different stakeholders to further give solutions on ways to reduce crime rates committed in china. This research can act as a base for the government to know know different social and economic factors affecting citizens and through that, effective strategies will be developed. As earlier stated, the discussion dwells much on factors that are economical in nature that affect crime rate in China. The research will be targeting the government and its citizens and make this as an opportunity for other countries to learn about the best steps to be adopted to to bridge both inequalities. This is in terms of resource allocation and income distribution. Economists of all countries whether developing or developed will gain much knowledge as a result of this research as this will be a platform where there will be a comparison of how different countries deal with ways of reducing crimes. This research paper will give light to ways which can be practicable in different countries on effective strategies to be used to curb the problem of crime. To carry out the research two groups were involved to be interviewed where ten low income earners were questioned and the same was done to high income earners where all the results were gotten. This research was done under permission of the ministry of finance where proper procedures were undertaken to ensure that the research was carried out ethically. The research applied open forum questions and self report simple questionnaires where a yes or no answer was applied. With the help of an economist, the questionnaires were fairly distributed as they touched on both sides of the groups. The research was conducted in different location in China and at different months. Taking different months indicated different economic seasons hence this research was conducted in January, April and November. Throughout the three periods of collecting data, there was a similarity of the causes of crime and why there was so much change in the crime rate. At the end of every period of collecting data, there was an analysis where there was an outline of the factors that seemed to be the contributors of crime. All citizens in different classes of earning were involved and this made it possible for the discussion that would help further in supporting the thesis statement. From the data collected, most of the Chinese citizens interviewed claimed income and resource inequality to be the major causes of crime rate and this was supported by a separate research done at different streets of China through a news station. The aim of conducting the research was to identify the factors that had caused crime rate changes in China from 1970 to 2010.From the literature and data collection given, it has been said that with the urge of meeting daily needs, the citizens have the responsibility of looking for ways to get money. It becomes a hard task for the poor to meet such needs hence are pressured to get money even by use of involving themselves in dangerous activities. Chen (2010) attributes involvement of crime to be as a result of enough channels introduced to them by the government hence opting to illegal ways of having part of the resources. Income is another factor that has lead to increased crime rates according to the journal of law and economics under the topic inequality and violent crime, Fajnzylber, et. Al (2002) claims that there is a connection between the crimes committed in different countries and the income that an individual earns. Taking the example of China as one of the countries, the authors have conducted a study where it has been noted that income differences between the rich and poor have lead to an increase in crimes. The authors state that these citizens having low wages paid to them are the most affected in the crime rate. For a balance to be stricken, the authors state that the poor will do anything to their effort to ensure that they feel satisfied which among them is committing crimes. Inequality in income makes the weaker party feel at a disadvantage hence look for ways of compensating themselves through engaging in criminal activities. The authors have deduced that there is a relationship that exists between income inequality and the rate of crimes that are being committed in China as one of the developing countries. Using an empirical approach, the authors concluded that the rate of crime is attributed to the decreased economic growth which is as a result of unequal distribution of income. Out of the factors that have been mentioned, it has been found out that macroeconomic factors seem to play a key role in determining changes in crime rates. A positive relationship has been attributed to the factors and crime where income levels differ. In order to equalize on this, people will be greatly involved in crimes to meet with their needs (Josten, 451). The majority of people living in China is low income earners and with the increase in inflation made it even worse due to the fact that they would strain in the purchasing of goods and even meeting to any necessary wants. Unemployment is another factor that has been said to increase crime as lack of income does not mean that someone is to be excluded from living. Unemployment has also been found to be a contributor of crime. As a result of unemployment and the requirement to cater for their daily living, China’s citizens had to make ends hence they had to look for ways to meet their needs and opt for criminal activities. By lack of economic stability in china, this brought about political violence in the country that that resulted in crimes being committed. This paper is entirely based on research which tries to identify major factors that are attributable to increased crime rate in China. Any person intending to read the research is expected to acquire knowledge of the relationship that exists between macroeconomic factors and crime rates. The reader is expected to be informed on ways and means the government of China has done to reduce the inequalities that are in the country and the best measures that they have adopted and seem to work on other countries. Not only the inequalities of income and resources are to be discussed but other social factors that the reader should expect to be a cause have also been mentioned and discussed in the research. Out of the research conducted, economists can make deductions as to the best strategies to adopt to to have a balance in the distribution of income and the government will benefit as they device for ways of equalizing the level of income in individuals. With proper policies implemented and equitable distribution of resources, the country has seen a reduced rate of crime in the years that followed. In the rendering of capital punishment while taking a macroeconomic perspective, the economy had to invest greatly in security administration in order to effectively manage the level of crimes that had continued taking place. To make this factor to benefit the citizens of China and to make a difference in the rate of crimes committed, there had to be credibility in the judicial sector. All the above have been factors towards contributors of crime and the only solution was for the economy to change in order to see reduced crime rates. References Becker, Gary. 1968. Crime and punishment: An economic approach. Journal of Political Economy, 76(2), 169–217. Josten, Douglas. 2003. Inequality, crime and economic growth. A classical argument for distributional equality, International Tax and Public Finance 10, 435-452. Masih, Malikmu and Masih, Joseph. 1996. Temporal Causality and the Dynamics of Different Categories of Crime and Their Socioeconomic Determinants: Evidence from Australia. Applied Economics 28, 1093-1104. The economic roots of China's crimes. China Daily, March 4 2010. Retrieved on 9th March 2013 from: http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/2010-03/04/content_19520766.htm Viren, Patel. 2001. Modelling crime and punishment, Applied Economics, 33, 1869-1879. Read More