Abstract:

Crime is a subject that is of great interest to economists as well as all social scientists. There are different levels of relationship between crime and many macroeconomic variables. One of these variables is the income distribution, which implies that the income generated in the society is distributed fairly among the agents. There are a number of studies which conclude that income distribution is effective in feeding the crime phenomenon in societies. In this study, unlike the literature, it is investigated whether the relationship between crime and income distribution includes spatiality, that is, whether the border neighborhoods of the regions carry a decisive feature in the relationship between crime and income distribution. For this purpose, the relationship between income inequality and crimes against property was studied using spatial econometric methods for NUTS 2 level regions in Turkey. The data is obtained from Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) local database for 2016. The results of the spatial determination tests show that the Spatial Error Model is the most appropriate model. The findings of the study illustrates that for NUTS 2 level regions in Turkey there are positive and significant relationship between income distribution and crime, and also suggests a spatiality effect. As a result, for the 26 NUTS 2 level regions in Turkey, it is possible to say that border neighborhood is effective in crime-income distribution relationship. This suggests that the neighborhood relations should be taken into consideration in both income distribution and crime prevention policies.

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