question in description
jcass69
inequality2.pptxCrime and inequality
There has been a dramatic fall in US crime rates in recent decades
There has also been a dramatic rise in incarcerations
Did one cause the other?
The benefits of the fall in crime has gone disproportionately towards poorer cities (and poorer neighbourhoods within cities (but these areas are also where most of the prisoners come from)
Graphs below are all from: Magnus Lofstrom and Steven Raphael “Crime, the Criminal Justice System, and Socioeconomic Inequality” Journal of Economic Perspectives—Volume 30, Number 2—Spring 2016—Pages 103–126
Did the increase in incarcerations lower crime?
Levitt (2004) argues that nearly all of the US crime decline since 1991 can be explained by four factors:
The legalization of abortion, the waning of the crack epidemic, the rise in the US incarceration rate, and the increase in police staffing levels.
However crime rates have declined in many western countries with low incarceration rates and where these other factors counted much less
Levitt (2004) attributes one third of the decline in the US to incarceration
California 2011 had to reduce incarceration rates due to a federal court ruling, did not increase crime noticeably, similar evidence from other countries
Lofstrom & Rafael Conclude:
…thus, it is reasonable to pursue multiple policygoals, both seeking additional reductions in crime and in the continuing inequalityof crime victimization and simultaneously seeking to reduce inequality of criminal justice sanctioning.
If such policies are carried out sensibly, both kinds of inequality
can be reduced without a meaningful tradeoff arising between them.
Inequality over the recession in Ireland: Temporary fall in the Gini, but inequality around OECD average typically. Graphs below are all from :
M. Savage, T. Callana,, B. Noland, B. Colgana “The Great Recession, Austerity and Inequality: Evidence from Ireland” Working Paper No. 499 April 2015 ESRI
10% poorest lost the most, the same true in most OECD countries
Tax and welfare policy substantially lowers inequality in Ireland (and many other OECD countries)
Share of bottom decile Accounted for by people transitioning from higher income deciles (including higher than 50th percentile rose during recession.
while bottom decile suffered more than higher income the composition of bottom decile also changed
