Do the economic factors affect criminality? Evidence from Greece, 1991-2010

The paper aims to investigate the factors that influence or spurs criminal activities in Greece given its economic circumstances for the time period 1991-2010. Data were collected by international databases and published reports of the Greek Ministry of Order and were employed under statistical analysis. First, six independent variables (economic and demographic) were included in the research and it was investigated which affect the aggregate criminality. Results denote that the unemployment rate considerably affects the overall criminality. Moreover, criminality is sufficiently affected by the level of the average monthly wage and the level of population. The second point was the appointment of the factors that affect specific type-crimes. The assumption that recession would be reflected to a rise of criminality was not confirmed. Thieveries/burglaries and robberies (including robberies in banks) were not associated to any factor under study. Homicides, frauds, rapes, forgery, beggary, sexual assault, property rights crimes and illegal antiquities dealing, were not found to be associated to any economic factor. Only the crime of blackmails was found strongly associated with the level of the average monthly wages (p = 0.005). Finally, animals' theft was associated to the amount of the general population and smuggling was found to be negatively related to the existing offenders.