Does poverty lead to crime? Evidence from the United States of America

Purpose Economic hardship and crime is always a debatable issue in the political economy literature. Some authors define poverty leads to crime some are completely opposite. The purpose of this paper is to find out the impact of poverty on crime in the USA. Design/methodology/approach Using time series data of USA over the period from 1965 to 2016, this study applies autoregressive distributed lag approach to identify the effect of poverty on crime. Findings The outcomes confirm a positive co-integrating relationship between poverty and property crime. It can be argued that poverty ultimately leads property crime in long run in the USA. However, unemployment and GDP exhibit neither long-run nor short-run relationship with property crime and they are not cointegrated for the calculated period. Research limitations/implications The subject of this paper helps to explain and analyze the nexus between poverty and crime in the USA. Practical implications Government and policymakers should focus more on poverty rather than unemployment alone to control property crime. Originality/value This study attempts to identify the consequences of economic hardship and poverty on the crime in the advanced economy like USA.