IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/ratsoc/v18y2006i2p193-235.html

Social Class and Delinquency

Author

Listed:
  • Rolf Becker

    (University of Berne, Switzerland, rolf.becker@sis.unibe.ch)

  • Guido Mehlkop

    (Dresden University of Technology, Germany, guido.mehlkop@mailbox.tu-dresden.de)

Abstract

The frequently predicted relationship between social class and criminal behavior is theoretically vacillating and empirically exiguous. We present an extended rational choice model which integrates the effects of an individual’s social status on his or her subjective evaluations of (1) costs, (2) utility, (3) the probability of apprehension, (4) the selective incentives, and (5) the internalization of social norms. We test the model against the offences of shop-lifting and tax-evasion. The data source derived from the German General Social Survey empirically supports the theoretical model. There exists no prevalent relationship between an individual’s social status and his or her incentives towards criminal comportment. However, the social status of an individual affects the type of offences committed. The subjectively expected probability of either failing or succeeding in a criminal act takes greater precedence over the fear of retribution or the expected utility. Additionally, internalized norms decrease the probability of committing a crime.

Suggested Citation

  • Rolf Becker & Guido Mehlkop, 2006. "Social Class and Delinquency," Rationality and Society, , vol. 18(2), pages 193-235, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ratsoc:v:18:y:2006:i:2:p:193-235
    DOI: 10.1177/1043463106063323
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1043463106063323
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/1043463106063323?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gary S. Becker, 1974. "Crime and Punishment: An Economic Approach," NBER Chapters, in: Essays in the Economics of Crime and Punishment, pages 1-54, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Tom R. Tyler, 1997. "Procedural Fairness and Compliance with the Law," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics (SJES), Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics (SSES), vol. 133(2), pages 219-240, June.
    3. Davis, Michael L, 1988. "Time and Punishment: An Intertemporal Model of Crime," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 96(2), pages 383-390, April.
    4. repec:bla:kyklos:v:42:y:1989:i:3:p:405-30 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. James Heckman, 2013. "Sample selection bias as a specification error," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 31(3), pages 129-137.
    6. Grogger, Jeff, 1998. "Market Wages and Youth Crime," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 16(4), pages 756-791, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. van Winden Frans A.A.M. & Ash Elliott, 2012. "On the Behavioral Economics of Crime," Review of Law & Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 8(1), pages 181-213, June.
    2. Kroneberg, Clemens & Heintze, Isolde & Mehlkop, Guido, 2008. "On shoplifting and tax fraud : an action-theoretic analysis of crime," Papers 08-16, Sonderforschungsbreich 504.
    3. Guido Mehlkop & Peter Graeff, 2010. "Modelling a rational choice theory of criminal action: Subjective expected utilities, norms, and interactions," Rationality and Society, , vol. 22(2), pages 189-222, May.
    4. Korndörfer, Martin & Krumpal, Ivar & Schmukle, Stefan C., 2014. "Measuring and explaining tax evasion: Improving self-reports using the crosswise model," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 18-32.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Guido Mehlkop & Peter Graeff, 2010. "Modelling a rational choice theory of criminal action: Subjective expected utilities, norms, and interactions," Rationality and Society, , vol. 22(2), pages 189-222, May.
    2. Carneiro, Francisco Galrao & Loureiro, Paulo R.A. & Sachsida, Adolfo, 2005. "Crime and social interactions: a developing country case study," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 311-318, May.
    3. Sergio Beraldo & Raul Caruso & Gilberto Turati, 2012. "Life is Now! Time Discounting and Crime: Aggregate Evidence from the Italian Regions (2002-2007)," Working papers 013, Department of Economics, Social Studies, Applied Mathematics and Statistics (Dipartimento di Scienze Economico-Sociali e Matematico-Statistiche), University of Torino.
    4. Beraldo, Sergio & Caruso, Raul & Turati, Gilberto, 2013. "Life is now! Time preferences and crime: Aggregate evidence from the Italian regions," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 73-81.
    5. Basiglio, Stefania & Foresta, Alessandra & Turati, Gilberto, 2024. "Impatience and crime. Evidence from the NLSY97," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    6. Conley, John P. & Wang, Ping, 2006. "Crime and ethics," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(1), pages 107-123, July.
    7. Jacques Pelletan, 2013. "Knowledge society and crime: an ambiguous relation," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 33(3), pages 1852-1862.
    8. Paul J. Zak, 2000. "Larceny," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 1(2), pages 157-179, July.
    9. Entorf, Horst & Spengler, Hannes, 2000. "Socioeconomic and demographic factors of crime in Germany: Evidence from panel data of the German states," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 75-106, March.
    10. Arturo Bris, 2005. "Do Insider Trading Laws Work?," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 11(3), pages 267-312, June.
    11. Milo Bianchi & Paolo Buonanno & Paolo Pinotti, 2012. "Do Immigrants Cause Crime?," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 10(6), pages 1318-1347, December.
    12. Giovanni Mastrobuoni & Paolo Pinotti, 2011. "Legal status of immigrants and criminal behavior: evidence from a natural experiment," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 813, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    13. Kenneth Burdett & Ricardo Lagos & Randall Wright, 2003. "Crime, Inequality, and Unemployment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(5), pages 1764-1777, December.
    14. Paolo Buonanno & Giovanni Mastrobuoni, 2012. "Police and Crime: Evidence from Dictated Delays in Centralized Police Hiring," Carlo Alberto Notebooks 244, Collegio Carlo Alberto.
    15. Sourav Batabyal, 2011. "Temporal Causality and the Dynamics of Crime and Delinquency," Atlantic Economic Journal, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 39(4), pages 421-441, December.
    16. Thorsten Chmura & Christoph Engel & Markus Englerth, 2013. "Selfishness As a Potential Cause of Crime. A Prison Experiment," Discussion Paper Series of the Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Economics 2013_05, Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Economics.
    17. Jorge Garcia Hombrados, . "Empirical essays on development economics," Economics PhD Theses, Department of Economics, University of Sussex Business School, number 0318, September.
    18. Stephen Machin & Olivier Marie, 2006. "Crime and benefit sanctions," Portuguese Economic Journal, Springer;Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestao, vol. 5(2), pages 149-165, August.
    19. Lihui Zhang, 2016. "Are youth offenders responsive to changing sanctions? Evidence from the Canadian Youth Criminal Justice Act of 2003," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 49(2), pages 515-554, May.
    20. Neil Rickman & Robert Witt, 2007. "The Determinants of Employee Crime in the UK," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 74(293), pages 161-175, February.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:ratsoc:v:18:y:2006:i:2:p:193-235. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.