Effect of Police Expenditures on Crime Rates: Some Evidence

Abstract

The main concern of this paper is the relationship between public sector use of resources for law enforcement and the rate of criminal activity. In addition, this paper reports tests of the hypotheses that crime rates are influenced by economic and demographic factors that condition the individual's environment and alternatives. The results support several tentative conclusions: existing intercity differences in crime rates cannot be attributed to the existing and substantial intercity differences in resources devoted to public law enforcement. Nor can the major share of crime rate variation be attributed to environmental factors that are widely regarded as determinants of individual decisions to engage in unlawful activity, although some of these factors (income, race, age, city size) appear to have a significant and stable effect on crime rates.