Social determinants of crime in a welfare state: Do they still matter?

Abstract

Despite decades of research on the association between socio-economic status (SES) and crime, its strength and nature remain contested. Using a unique dataset combining data from several administrative registers with a nationally representative sample of 28,485 19 to 30-year-old Finnish citizens, we examine SES differences in violent offences, property offences and driving while intoxicated. We use multiple measures of SES in order to see what it is in SES that increases crime risk. We also test the strain accumulation hypothesis to find out whether presence of multiple strains increases crime risk disproportionately. The results indicate that, in addition to male gender, SES is strongly associated with all three types of crime, and the predictors are largely similar for all the offence types in question. Long-term unemployment and having only a basic education, in particular, were the most robust predictors of offending. These associations held after controlling for previous criminal involvement as well as other social characteristics, whereas the effect of low income on crime was primarily attributable to prior involvement in crime. Overall, the results imply that there are both causation and selection mechanisms at play. No interactive effect was found for strain accumulation.