Then again, there are more not-so-rich people than rich people. To weigh the ″socio-economic inequality” argument it needs to be shown how criminality correlates with wealth.
(Note that ‘socio-economic inequality’ is a rather imprecise term here—it seems that what is meant is something like ‘poverty induces crime’)
It can be easily shown how criminality correlates with inequality directly. Let’s for example compare the homicide rates (per 100 thousand inhabitatnts per year) in 15 most equal and 15 most inequal countries in the world (measured by Gini index):
Most equal (Gini between 24.7 and 29.2)
Denmark 1.0
Japan 1.0
Sweden 0.89
Czech Rep. 1.9
Norway 0.60
Slovakia 1.7
Bosnia 1.8
Finland 2.5
Hungary 1.4
Ukraine 5.4
Germany 0.86
Slovenia 0.55
Croatia 1.7
Austria 0.55
Bulgaria 2.3
Most inequal (Gini between 74.3 and 53.8)
Namibia 18
Lesotho 37
Sierra Leone 2.6
Central African Rep. 30
Botswana 12
Bolivia 11
Haiti 22
Colombia 35
Paraguay 12
South Africa 34
Brazil 22
Panama 13
Guatemala 52
Chile 1.7
Honduras 67
The data are fromWikipedia. There may be some caveats (e.g. some countries include attempted murders in the count while others don’t), but the overall correlation is easily visible.
In rich countries, there are strong correlations between income inequality and imprisonment rates (graph), and between income inequality and homicide rates (graph). As for selection bias, the authors of the graphs took the 50 richest countries over population 3 million for which data was available. Data sources here.
Then again, there are more not-so-rich people than rich people. To weigh the ″socio-economic inequality” argument it needs to be shown how criminality correlates with wealth.
(Note that ‘socio-economic inequality’ is a rather imprecise term here—it seems that what is meant is something like ‘poverty induces crime’)
It can be easily shown how criminality correlates with inequality directly. Let’s for example compare the homicide rates (per 100 thousand inhabitatnts per year) in 15 most equal and 15 most inequal countries in the world (measured by Gini index):
Most equal (Gini between 24.7 and 29.2)
Denmark 1.0
Japan 1.0
Sweden 0.89
Czech Rep. 1.9
Norway 0.60
Slovakia 1.7
Bosnia 1.8
Finland 2.5
Hungary 1.4
Ukraine 5.4
Germany 0.86
Slovenia 0.55
Croatia 1.7
Austria 0.55
Bulgaria 2.3
Most inequal (Gini between 74.3 and 53.8)
Namibia 18
Lesotho 37
Sierra Leone 2.6
Central African Rep. 30
Botswana 12
Bolivia 11
Haiti 22
Colombia 35
Paraguay 12
South Africa 34
Brazil 22
Panama 13
Guatemala 52
Chile 1.7
Honduras 67
The data are from Wikipedia. There may be some caveats (e.g. some countries include attempted murders in the count while others don’t), but the overall correlation is easily visible.
In rich countries, there are strong correlations between income inequality and imprisonment rates (graph), and between income inequality and homicide rates (graph). As for selection bias, the authors of the graphs took the 50 richest countries over population 3 million for which data was available. Data sources here.