Does state-level per capita income affect juvenile delinquency? An empirical analysis for Indian states

Nabamita Dutta (), Dipparna Jana and Saibal Kar ()

Economic Modelling, 2020, vol. 87, issue C, 109-120

Abstract: While average juvenile crime rates across India has dropped in recent decades, juvenile property crime rates (total juvenile crimes divided by state population) has actually gone up from 15% in 2000-01 to about 20% in 2013-14. There is huge variation across states when it comes to juvenile crime rates. The literature on juvenile crime in the Indian context is scant. This paper aims to fill the gap in the literature by undertaking a comprehensive analysis of juvenile delinquency related to property crimes across Indian states. Results show that state income per capita has a non-linear impact on incidences of juvenile crime across Indian states - rising when the income starts growing for relatively poorer states but increasing at a diminishing rate when state income per capita rises further. When a poor state gets relatively richer, both opportunities to commit crime and returns from property crime increases. However, as the state grows even richer, growth of employment and state facilities including rehabilitation and redistribution, improve. Further, we find that states with the lowest income per capita and highest level of adult crime face the steepest increase in juvenile crime rates for a rise in state income per capita.

Keywords: Juvenile crime; Adult crime; Panel analysis; State income per capita; India (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D63 K42 O53 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecmode:v:87:y:2020:i:c:p:109-120

DOI: 10.1016/j.econmod.2019.07.011

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