The influence of changing reward of electronic consumer goods on burglary and theft offences in Western market-based countries in the years prior to and during the crime drop

Crime Science

Joseph Clare¹  Liam Quinn¹ 

[1] School of Law, University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Hwy, 6009, Crawley, Perth, WA, Australia;

关键词: Crime opportunity;    Crime drop;    Reduced reward;    Situational crime prevention;    Stolen goods markets;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s40163-021-00153-w

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

It is widely recognised that burglary and theft offence trends have broadly moved in parallel in ‘Western’ market-based countries since the 1950s. Most researchers have focussed on the trend from the early 1990s onwards, when burglary and theft offence rates plummeted. One major proposed explanation for this trend, relates to improved security. This paper draws on the longitudinal variations in reward of electronic consumer goods to propose a complementary account. This argument is supported by criminological theory, empirical evidence, and historical trends of specific property crime offences. The paper concludes by explaining that reward and security operate in partnership to influence the opportunity for crime, which provides an optimal account for burglary and theft offence trends over the last 40 years.

【 授权许可】

CC BY