Does Income Inequality Explain the Geography of Residential Burglaries? The Case of Belo Horizonte, Brazil

Abstract

The relationship between crime and income inequality is a complex and controversial issue. While there is some consensus that a relationship exists, the nature of it is still the subject of much debate. In this paper, this relationship is investigated in the context of urban geography and whether income inequality can explain the geography of crime within cities. This question is examined for the specific case of residential burglaries in the city of Belo Horizonte, Brazil, where I tested how much burglary rates are affected by local average household income and by local exposure to poverty, while I controlled for other variables relevant to criminological theory, such as land-use type, density and accessibility. Different scales were considered for testing the effect of exposure to poverty. This study reveals that, in Belo Horizonte, the rate of burglaries per single family house is significantly and positively related to income level, but a higher exposure to poverty has no significant independent effect on these rates at any scale tested. The rate of burglaries per apartment, on the other hand, is not significantly affected by either average household income or exposure to poverty. These results seem consistent with a description where burglaries follow a geographical distribution based on opportunity, rather than being a product of localized income disparity and higher exposure between different economic groups.

Economic gaps and crimes among the States of Nigeria

“…Poverty and low income level, and not income inequality, positively affect homicides, so also is rural–urban migration from violent localities to cities. Ramos (2019) partly corroborates this by investigating whether income inequality can explain the geography of crime within the city of Belo Horizonte, Brazil, using the GWRisk standardisation method. This revealed that the rate of burglaries per single family house is positively related to income level but not related to exposure to poverty.…”

Spatial Modeling and Analysis of the Determinants of Property Crime in Portugal

“…The relationship between poverty, income inequality, and crime rates is complex. Hence, it is a controversial issue that has been debated at length in the literature (e.g., [71][72][73][74]). The conclusions from different studies often seem contradictory as they depend on the type of crime, the spatial resolution of the analyses, and the methodological and empirical approach.…”

Urban Crime Mapping and Analysis Using GIS

“…Similarly, the second case study by [17] proposes a quantitative model to determine whether income inequality (average household income and exposure to poverty) can explain the geography of residential burglary in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, while controlling for land-use type, density, and accessibility. The data used in this case study are from the 2010 Census at the level of census sectors as spatial units, real-estate registry, OpenStreetMap, and from the police.…”