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22 Criminology 229 (1984)
Income Inequality and Property Crime - A Cross-National Analysis of Relative Deprivation Theory

handle is hein.journals/crim22 and id is 231 raw text is: ABSTRACT * * * Cultural issues that act as intervening variables in the inequality-crime relationship have been neglected in the literature on inequality and crime. The present article ex- plores the interaction between inequality and variables thought to be associated with a perception that inequality is illegitimate. The central argument is that the strength of inequality-crime relationship is dependent on a contextual factor, a radical egalitarian culture promoting the view that inequality is illegitimate. Data on property crime from 62 nations are analyzed. The results generally indicate that neither inequality nor the interaction between inequality and egalitarian culture exerts independent effects on property crime. Income Inequality and Property Crime A Cross-National Analysis of Relative Deprivation Theory STEVEN STACK Pennsylvania State University Empirically confirmed explanations of criminal behavior in the United States may not be replicated in research on nations characterized by different social, economic, and political contexts. For this reason many researchers have called for comparative analyses to test criminological theories (Clinard, 1960, 1978; Holyst, 1977; Krohn, 1976; Wellford, 1974). The present investigation is interested in a reassessment of the relationship between income inequality and property crime through a comparative analysis. While there has been a great deal of research on AUTHOR'S NOTE: This article is a revised version of a paper read at the annual meetings of the American Society of Criminology, Toronto, 1982. 1 would like to thank Marvin Krohn for his help in securing the Interpol data, Philip Jenkins for his comments on an earlier version of the paper, Pennsylvania State University for providing computer time, and Rita M. Kline and Deborah Welsby-Shade for their help in typing the manuscript. CRIMINOLOGY, Vol. 22 No. 2, May 1984 229-257 @ 1984 American Society of Criminology 229

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