March 20, 2008
Rising and falling incentives for burglary
The topic of the falling burglary rate in western countries has always interested me. It seems a fair bet that burglary has been in decline because there is less point to stealing stuff such as televisions and DVD players.
I wrote a column about it in 2004, which included this paragraph:
Blue-collar crime has suffered a similar fate to blue-collar work over the past two decades. Just as changes in technology and globalisation have reduced the number of well-paid jobs for unskilled and semi-skilled workers in industrialised countries, the financial returns to burglary have fallen. Televisions are now made in China so cheaply that they are hardly worth stealing.
Anyway, the topic has just been taken up again by Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution and Felix Salmon. Felix posits that burglary may be about to rise again as a result of the credit crunch.
On the other hand, one positive for burglary was the rising price of gold - it was worth more to break into people’s houses for their jewellery. So it is further bad news for burglars that gold has been plummeting this week.
It might seem incredible but even PUPPIES are being stolen by thieves (from Eastern European EU member countries) who are coming to France. So I was informed by the breeder of our dog, who is located in France and who has now gone offline. Furthermore, cats are disappearing in large numbers from Switzerland, and their skins are used in EU countries as fashion trimmings/accessories in the clothing industry.
No wonder the Italian economy is in bad shape - the Mafia take 40 Milliarden Euros p.a. out of the Italian economy for a start.
Posted by: fh | March 20th, 2008 at 6:33 pm | Report this comment