Socio-economic and demographic determinants of crime by panel count data analysis: the case of EU 28 and Turkey

Abstract

Purpose- Aim of this paper is to examine factors that affect the total number of crimes recorded by the police for EU 28 and Turkey in 2001-2010, which is not used previously in the literature dealing with the developments and changes during a certain period in this study. Methodology- We used panel count data in analysis of this paper. Count data models are appropriate to determine factors on the number of crimes because of the nature of the dependent variable. Findings- we used growth rate, GDP per capita, inflation, unemployment rate, urban overpopulation, enrollment rate and the number of the police variables to examine effect on crimes. The results demonstrate that GDP per capita, inflation, unemployment rate and urban overpopulation has a positive on the number of crimes. The increases on the enrollment rate and the number of police decrease the number of crimes. Conclusion- We observe higher crime rates in highly urbanized areas.