Income Inequality and Crime: A Review and Explanation of the Time– series Evidence

The relationship between inequality and crime is of interest in multiple disciplines, including sociology, economics, psychology and epidemiology. Despite broad agreement across the disciplines for the existence of a relationship, there is little consensus on the theoretical explanation for this association. Runciman and Blau and Blau address the relationship from a sociological perspective yet provide differing explanations. 

Runciman’s theory of relative deprivation suggests that income inequality increases feelings of dispossession and unfairness, which leads poorer individuals to reduce perceived economic injustice through crime, while Blau and Blau suggest that relevant inequalities may be exacerbated by race. Evolutionary psychologists,Wilson and Daly views crime as a result from status competition. They argue that people at the bottom of the income distribution are particularly sensitive to inequality and this leads to risk-seeking behaviour (such as crime) when low-risk activities offer poor returns to the individual.