The Dynamics and Determinants of Economic Crimes in Türkiye

Abstract

The economics of crime deals with two issues: (i) the economic cost of the crime, and (ii) the economic motivations behind the crime that is committed by individuals. In this context, crime is distinguished by whether it has an economic characteristic or not. Economic crimes can be defined as non-violent crimes committed to gain profit, benefit, or social status. Understanding the dynamics of crime is crucial for policy-making to minimize the economic and social costs to society. In the last decade, the total amount of crime has been increasing continuously in Türkiye. The economic crimes accounted for approximately 60 % of total crimes until 2012. In the later years, the rate of other crimes (particularly, assault, threat, and traffic crimes) in total crimes have surpassed economic crimes, nonetheless, the number of economic crimes has also been increasing gradually and peaked in 2018. Moreover, economic crimes show regional differences in Türkiye, and revealing these disparities may provide useful insights to policymakers. Therefore, the examination of the dynamics of economic crimes at the regional level and its relationship with economic variables in Türkiye seems to be timely and important. We collect a broad economic crime data of 26 sub-regions for the 2006-2020 period. We first analyze the regional differences in property and fraud by utilizing the mapping method. We also tried to reveal the link between income, unemployment, and education level with property and fraud with dynamic panel methodology and revealed that variables have different effects on different economic crimes.