Repeat property criminal victimization and income inequality in Brazil

Abstract

This paper is concerned with the analysis of the impact that socioeconomic characteristics of individuals and regions, with special emphasis on income inequality, have in the process of repeat property criminal victimization. To accomplish this task,a series of count data models is estimated. The zero inflated negative binomial model performs best, in a series of nested and non-nested inferencial procedures. These econometrics models are applied to a unique data set: the 1988 PNAD. For this specific year only, an additional set of questions provide us with a national sample of victimization, something yet not available again until now. Our results are in close accordance to the international literature, and the estimative concerning the impact of income inequality on repeat victimization is quite strong and robust to the use of different measures and control for cluster effects. The elasticity of the GINI coefficient is positive and the strongest among all variables (0.3666), meaning that increasing inequality leads to more victimizations. The results about the effect of inequality has the potential to offer new insights for security policies at both the federal and state level in Brazil.