| dc.description.abstract | Criminality has been one of the main problems faced by society, and a huge obstacle to the
country’s social and economic development, generating a frightening and insecure
environment. The present work seeks to analyze the criminality and the factors that contribute
to the illicit acts committed by individuals. We sought behavioral evidences through a
personal, social and state-focused analysis of criminality, in which the government is capable
of dissuade criminal activities through its expenses- whenever these are efficient. This paper
focuses on money related crimes, using the robbery and drug trafficking rates as the
dependent variables in the econometric models, estimated to obtain more consistent answers
on the reactions of criminals and potential criminals to changes in certain variables. The
independent variables used were government expenditure in education, public safety and
social assistance, GDP per capita, unemployment, inequality and male youth. The data used
concern Brazilian states, from the year of 2008 to 2013. The results obtained showed that
security expenses have strong impacts on crime deterrence, educational expenses increase
robbery rates, unemployment and income are also important for the criminal analysis, despite
their ambiguous effects according to theory. In addition, as for trafficking, the results indicate
that the more egalitarian a society is, the greater is the crime. | |
