Does Economic Deprivation Lead to Property Crimes: Evidence From India

ABSTRACT It is an evident fact that economic deprivation increases crimes; however, in a developing country like India, deprivation measured in terms of per capita consumption expenditure or income might not be able to provide a comprehensive picture due to the persistence of cash in kind, unavailability of district‐level statistics, and the presence of seasonal elements in income and expenditure. Therefore, this study creates a deprivation index based on the inaccessibility of basic amenities in a district, and explores its relationship with property crimes. We find that the relationship between deprivation index and property crime is of an inverted‐U: it increases property crimes up to a certain threshold level, after which it decreases property crimes. We use the Control Function Approach to test for the endogeneity of the deprivation index by taking an instrument—cross‐district male in‐migration rate, and we find the variable to be exogenous. Further, we find that cross‐state district in‐migration has a direct and positive effect on property crimes, unlike the cross‐district male in‐migration rate. We suggest that reducing the deprivation by increasing access to basic amenities above a certain threshold can subsequently reduce property crimes. The priority must be given to access to electricity, drinking water, and cooking fuel.