Crime and Corruption: An International Empirical Study

s This paper uses the homicide data of United Nations Surveys on Crime Trends and the Operations of Criminal Justice Systems (UN-CTS), and examines the influence of corruption on crime. The results indicate that corruption has a significant positive effect on crime, and higher income level, income gap and youth ratio will lead to higher crime rates, while employment has no significant effect. In the countries with low crime rates, the effect is strong, and the anti-corruption activities in these countries will result in sound effects of controlling crimes. The economic analysis of crime began with Becker's "Crime and Punishment". The economics of crime does not see criminals as barbarians; instead, it treats crime as an economic activity in which the cost-benefit analysis can be conducted. Corruption is a social phenomenon people abominate. The beneficiaries of corruption are participants in corrupt transaction, while generally the public interests are jeopardized, rather than some certain individuals', and the credibility of the government may decline. Although there are many researches on crime or corruption, the linking of them is not sufficiently discussed. This paper aims to incorporate corruption into the framework of crime research, and assess the impact of corruption on crime through empirical evidence. Corruption is a criminal activity which violates the principles of fairness and justice, and obstructs the operation of the judicial system. Therefore, crime may be rampant in the countries with serious corruption and unsound legal system. Some literatures study corruption in economic model, concluding that corruption weaken the deterrent effect of law, thus indulge crime. Becker and Stigler (1974) pointed out that judicial force is likely to be influenced malfeasance and corruption, and two approaches may be used to change the incentives of the law enforcement: punish the malfeasance or improve police salaries. Bowles and Garoupa (1997) argue that transactions between police and criminals may reduce the expected cost of offenders, thus increasing crime. Kugler (2005) demonstrated that the low bribery cost correlates to the high rent of the criminal activities, and to increase the police force and punishment only result in the expansion of the criminal organization. Most literatures focus in the theoretical impact of corruption on crime, and this paper offer some empirical proof.