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THE EFFECTS OF POVERTY ON THE SUSCEPTIBILITY TO CRIME IN SOUTH AFRICA
ABSTRACT
This paper examines empirically the effects of household-level poverty, measured by household expenditures per capita, on the susceptibility to crime in South Africa. The paper uses an instrumental variables strategy combined with community fixed effects to account for potentially endogenous expenditures and unobserved between-community heterogeneity. Across all model specifications the probability a South African household is robbed is increasing in expenditures. When using instrumental variables, the positive effect of expenditures on the susceptibility to robbery increases substantially. In addition, the effect of expenditures remains positive and significant for “nonwhite” areas. This suggests that robberies are not only a problem for the rich who live in gated communities and hire private security, but also for the relatively “wealthy” that reside in poorer neighborhoods. Finally, this paper fails to find a statistically significant relationship between expenditures and the susceptibility to violent crimes such as murder, rape, and assault.
Keywords: Crime; Victimization; South Africa