Relationship Between Social Support Factors and Major Crimes

Abstract

Crimes must be reduced not only because of the financial, physical, and emotional damages they bring to the victims but also because crimes increase social costs by elevating distrust in society and instilling fear. With the increasing number of crimes in Korea, finding other factors that affect the occurrence of crimes is necessary beyond the current viewpoint for crime analysis. Social support factors can be candidates for studies on the social support effect on crime occurrence at their initial stage. In this study, we identified the effect of social support factors on crime occurrence or deterrence, none of which has been considered important until now, given the emergence of spatial econometrics. The resulting Morans I values revealed the existence of a spatial autocorrelation in all three crimes: heinous crimes, theft, and violence. As shown in the analysis using spatial econometrics and ordinary least squares, social support from families is significant in reducing all crimes especially violence. Social support from the local government is significant in preventing only theft. The spatial econometrics model is only valid in heinous crimes. These different effects of social support factors and spatial factors on crime occurrences are caused by the different characteristics of crimes. Hence, policy makers should consider the social support effect when they establish policies related to social housing or welfare.