Determinants and impacts of rural crime victimization

Evidence from a case study in Southeast Asia

verfasst von

Ulrike Grote, Thanh Tung Nguyen, Trung Thanh Nguyen, Frank Neubacher

Abstract

We use a panel dataset of around 3500 rural households from Southeast Asia and investigate evidence on crime victimization. More concretely, we ask (1) to what extent are rural people affected by crime? (2) What factors determine rural crime victimization? And (3) what are the impacts of crime victimization on welfare of rural households? We use the routine activity approach as the theoretical framework and apply different logit models to identify determinants of crime victimization. We find that 5.46% of the rural households have been victimized, mainly by theft, over the last 12 months, some of them even more than once. Living in a rural region with higher levels of inequality is positively correlated with the likelihood of theft victimization. Households with higher levels of crop commercialization are associated with a higher victimization risk, while households with more livestock and being more specialized in specific livestock species are associated with a lower risk. Moreover, past victimization and exposure to weather shocks are positively associated with the likelihood of being affected by crime. With respect to the impacts, we use the heteroscedasticity-based instrumental variable approach to account for endogeneity and find highly significant negative effects of agricultural theft victimization on food consumption and child health outcomes. We conclude that rural crime requires attention although overall incidence is low in rural Thailand and Vietnam. Guardianship should be promoted, especially in times of weather shocks. Finally, reducing inequality helps preventing theft.

Organisationseinheit(en)

Institut für Umweltökonomik und Welthandel

Externe Organisation(en)

Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn
Universität zu Köln

Typ

Artikel

Journal

Journal of Asian Economics

Band

91

Anzahl der Seiten

18

ISSN

1049-0078

Publikationsdatum

04.2024

Publikationsstatus

Veröffentlicht

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete

Finanzwesen, Volkswirtschaftslehre und Ökonometrie

Ziele für nachhaltige Entwicklung

SDG 16 – Frieden, Gerechtigkeit und starke Institutionen

Elektronische Version(en)

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asieco.2024.101712 (Zugang: Offen)