Income Inequality: Impact of Inequality Measures on Crimes An Analysis of the State of New Jersey

Abstract

This research used time-series data for the 50 year period of 1964 to 2014 to investigate the relationship between income inequalities and crimes in the state of New Jersey, United States of America. It found that income inequality had a significant relationship to all four types of crime measured – murder, forcible rape, aggravated assault and property crimes. Statistical significance would seem to depend on the model and inequality measure used. A log-log relationship existed between inequalities and all the crimes. Different inequality measures enabled different measures of significance. It also found that it was possible to come to different conclusions with respect to the relationships by using different inequality measures- the Gini and the 20/20 measures in our case.