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Date: April 25, 2024 Thu
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Results for inequality
19 results foundAuthor: Fox, Sean Title: The Political Economy of Social Violence: Theory and Evidence from a Cross-Country Study Summary: Why are some countries more prone to social violence than others? Drawing on theoretical and empirical insights from the fields of political economy, sociology and criminology, the authors develop and empirically test a holistic theory of social violence that accounts for political-institutional, socio-economic and socio-demographic factors. The study finds that hybrid political regimes, political-institutional volatility, poverty, inequality and ethnic diversity are associated with higher rates of social violence. Unexpectedly, higher rates of economic growth are also found to be robustly correlated with higher rates of social violence. Details: London: Crisis States Research Center, 2010. 24p. Source: Crisis States Working Papers Series No.2; Working Paper No. 72 Year: 2010 Country: International URL: Shelf Number: 118431 Keywords: Economic DevelopmentInequalityPovertyViolence |
Author: Diprose, Rachael Title: Safety and Security: A Proposal for Internationally Comparable Indicators of Violence Summary: One of the challenges for academics, policy makers, and practitioners working broadly in programs aimed at poverty alleviation, including violence prevention, is the lack of reliable and comparable data on the incidence and nature of violence. This paper proposes a household survey module for a multi-dimensional poverty questionnaire which can be used to complement the available data on the incidence of violence against property and the person, as well as perceptions of security and safety. Violence and poverty are inextricably linked, although the direction of causality is contested if not circular. The module uses standardized definitions which are clear and can be translated cross-culturally and a clear disaggregation of different types of interpersonal violence (not including self-harm) which bridges the crime-conflict nexus. Details: Oxford, UK: Centre for Research on Inequality, Human Security and Ethnicity (CRISE), University of Oxford, 2008. 61p. Source: CRISE Working Paper No. 52; Internet Resource Year: 2008 Country: International URL: Shelf Number: 118575 Keywords: Criminal StatisticsInequalityPovertyVictims of CrimeViolenceViolent Crime |
Author: Barenboim, Igor Title: Does Crime Breed Inequality? Theory and Evidence from the Favelas in Rio de Janeiro Summary: Crime and income inequality are positively correlated. Many have argued that the causation from the latter to the former; to our knowledge, the reverse channel of causality has not been studied. We present two simple mechanisms through which crime can breed inequality, both based on the idea that private protection from crime is a normal good. In our first hypothesis, crime distorts savings decisions by lowering expected returns, and more so for the poor who can afford less protection. Our second model explores how crime can generate inequality by diferentially affecting location decisions according to income. We test these ideas empirically in the extremely high-crime context of slums ("favelas") in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and find suggestive evidence that higher crime leads to more inequality within favelas. We also show evidence of the savings mechanism, with little support for the spatial mechanism in this context. Details: Cambridge, MA: Harvard University (Working Paper), 2009. 50p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 23, 2010 at: http://www.eea-esem.com/files/papers/EEA-ESEM/2009/448/Favelas_draft18Jan09%202.pdf Year: 2009 Country: Brazil URL: http://www.eea-esem.com/files/papers/EEA-ESEM/2009/448/Favelas_draft18Jan09%202.pdf Shelf Number: 120056 Keywords: Crime RatesInequalityPovertyPrivate ProtectionSlumsSocioeconomic Status |
Author: De Tella, Rafael Title: Happiness, Ideology and Crime in Argentine Cities Summary: This paper uses self-reported data on victimization, subjective well being and ideology for a panel of individuals living in six Argentine cities. While no relationship is found between happiness and victimization experiences, a correlation is documented, however, between victimization experience and changes in ideological positions. Specifically, individuals who are the victims of crime are subsequently more likely than non-victims to state that inequality is high in Argentina and that the appropriate measure to reduce crime is to become less punitive (demanding lower penalties for the same crime). Details: Washington, DC: Inter-American Development Bank, 2009. 44p. Source: Internet Resource: IDB WORKING PAPER SERIES No. IDB-WP-112; Accessed October 23, 2010 at: http://idbdocs.iadb.org/wsdocs/getdocument.aspx?docnum=35004726 Year: 2009 Country: Argentina URL: http://idbdocs.iadb.org/wsdocs/getdocument.aspx?docnum=35004726 Shelf Number: 120059 Keywords: Crime AnalysisInequalityVictimizationVictims of Crime |
Author: Kar, Saibal Title: Corruption, Shadow Economy and Income Inequality: Evidence from Asia Summary: A number of recent studies for Latin America show that as the size of the informal economy grows, corruption is less harmful to inequality. We investigate if this relationship is equally compelling for developing countries in Asia where corruption, inequality and shadow economies are considerably large. We use Panel Least Square and Fixed Effects Models for Asia to find that both ‘Corruption Perception Index’ and ‘ICRG’ index are sensitive to a number of important macroeconomic variables. We find that in the absence of the shadow economy, corruption increases inequality. However, with larger shadow economies in South Asia, the income inequality tends to fall. Details: Bonn, Germany: Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), 2012. 31p. Source: Internet Resource: IZA Discussion Paper No. 7106: Accessed January 29, 2013 at: http://ftp.iza.org/dp7106.pdf Year: 2012 Country: Asia URL: http://ftp.iza.org/dp7106.pdf Shelf Number: 127415 Keywords: Corruption (South Asia)InequalityShadow Economy |
Author: Yuille, Lua K. Title: Blood In, Buyout: A Property & Economic Approach to Street Gangs Summary: This article offers a fresh analysis of and solution to problems modern, American street gangs present: Local governments should pay gang members to refrain from gang related activity. Common wisdom dictates that, since they commit crimes, gangs should be understood and combated criminologically, through criminal sanctions. Popular interventions, like gang injunctions, expand that punitive orientation into civil strategies. But, gang criminality is merely a manifestation of a broader property-based disease. Therefore, those strategies will be ineffective and inefficient, as evidenced by the continuing rise in gang membership across the United States. The consensus in gang research is that gangs are not crime syndicates; they are capitalist social institutions creating and operating in alternative markets. Violence and criminality are secondary or tertiary facets of gangs, resulting from the inaccessibility of mainstream markets. Integrating these findings into a unique synthesis of disparate threads of property theory - from Charles Reich's The New Property and Margaret Radin's Property and Personhood to Cheryl Harris's Whiteness as Property - it is clear that gangs' primary purpose is to pursue the forms of property central to human identity. That insight frees anti-gang strategies from the strictures imposed by criminal law, but reveals social justice considerations not normally associated with gangs. On that basis, the article presents a novel idea: Gangs are recreating a traditional market-based property system, so the approach to the problems associated with them should be market-inspired. In the market, actors are paid to induce desired behavior. Therefore, local governments should compensate gang members for non-participation in legal (but undesirable) gang activity. The article tests this proposal using Calabresi and Melamed's framework for allocating and protecting entitlements advanced in Property Rules, Liability Rules, and Inalienability Rules: One View of the Cathedral. That analysis shows that the so-called "paid injunction" is a more effective and efficient approach to curbing the non-criminal activities of gangs that simultaneously advances the social justice concerns revealed by the property law analysis. Details: Working paper, 2015. 67p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 6, 2015 at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2585476 Year: 2015 Country: United States URL: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2585476 Shelf Number: 135534 Keywords: GangsInequalitySocioeconomic Conditions and CrimeSocioeconomic Status |
Author: Healy, D. Title: Crime, Punishment and Inequality in Ireland Summary: The linkages between crime, punishment, policing and inequality are multifaceted. There is good empirical evidence that certain types of offending, especially homicide, are positively correlated with inequality. In addition a theoretical argument can be made to the effect that inequality creates opportunities for the kinds of corporate and white collar misconduct which, even if not criminal in a narrow legal sense, have far-reaching and damaging social repercussions. For example, the enormous scale of reckless lending, balance sheet manipulation and cynical underestimation by Irish banks will place a greater financial burden on this country's taxpayers than the harms wrought by generations of robbers, burglars and thieves. Other countries caught up in the financial crises that defined the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century will have similar experiences. An exaggerated emphasis on financial success, to the virtual exclusion of other markers of achievement, becomes problematic in a context where there are few restraints on the means chosen to increase wealth. Traditional modes of crime prevention and control have proved insufficiently flexible to deal with a new category of harms perpetrated by a new class of offender; investigating financial malpractice requires new tools and new models of criminal justice. Details: Amsterdam: Amsterdams Instituut voor Arbeids Studies (AIAS), Universiteit van Amsterdam , 2013. 62p. Source: Internet Resource: GINI Discussion Paper 93: Accessed September 11, 2015 at: http://www.uva-aias.net/uploaded_files/publications/93-4-5-4.pdf Year: 2013 Country: Ireland URL: http://www.uva-aias.net/uploaded_files/publications/93-4-5-4.pdf Shelf Number: 136714 Keywords: Financial CrimesInequalityPovertySocioeconomic Conditions and CrimeWhite Collar Crime |
Author: Constantini, Mauro Title: Common trends in the US state-level crime. What do panel data say? Summary: This paper aims to investigate the long-run relationship between crime, inequality, unemployment and deterrence using state-level data for the US over the period 1978-2013. The novelty of the paper is to use non-stationary panels with factor structures. The results show that: i) a simple crime model well fits the long run relationship; ii) income inequality and unemployment have a positive impact on crime, whereas deterrence displays a negative sign; iii) the effect of income inequality on crime is large in magnitude; iv) property crime is generally highly sensitive to deterrence measures based upon police activities. Details: Venice: University of Venice, Department of Economics, 2016. 25p. Source: Working Paper no. 14/WP/2016: Accessed May 31, 2016 at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2771655 Year: 2016 Country: United States URL: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2771655 Shelf Number: 139240 Keywords: Crime Deterrence InequalitySocioeconomic Conditions and Crime Unemployment |
Author: Goda, Thomas Title: Absolute Inequality and Violent Property Crime Summary: Rational choice models argue that income inequality leads to a higher expected utility of crime and thus generates incentives to engage in illegal activities. Yet, the results of empirical studies do not provide strong support for this theory; in fact, Neumayer provides apparently strong evidence that income inequality is not a significant determinant of violent property crime rates when a representative sample is used and country specific fixed effects are controlled for. An important limitation of this and other empirical studies on the subject is that they only consider proportional income differences, even though in rational choice models absolute difference in legal and illegal incomes determine the expected utility of crime. Using the same methodology and data as Neumayer, but using absolute inequality measures rather than proportional ones, this paper finds that absolute income inequality is a statistically significant determinant of robbery and violent theft rates. This result is robust to changes in sample size and to different absolute inequality measures, which not only implies that inequality is an important correlate of violent property crime rates but also suggests that absolute measures are preferable when the impact of inequality on property crime is studied. Details: Colombia: Center for Research in Economics and Finance (CIEF), 2016. 22p. Source: Internet Resource: Center for Research in Economics and Finance (CIEF), Working Papers, No. 16-26: Accessed September 8, 2016 at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2827788 Year: 2016 Country: International URL: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2827788 Shelf Number: 147907 Keywords: InequalityPovertyProperty CrimeRobberySocioeconomic Conditions and CrimeViolent Crime |
Author: Corrales Compagnucci, Hugo Title: Armed Groups and Violence in Paraguay Summary: Armed violence in Paraguay is not a recent phenomenon. During the second half of the XX Century, Paraguay saw the rise of a larger number of underground, revolutionary movements that sought the overthrow of the Alfredo Stroessner's (1954-1989) government. From among those movements emerged the Partido Patria Libre (or, Free Fatherland, also known for its acronym PPL), made up of a two branches: one legal and the other one, operational. The latter was based on people's power, as represented by "Ejercito del Pueblo Paraguayo" (or, the Paraguayan People's Army, with acronym EPP). After EPP broke with PPL in March 2008, this Marxist-oriented revolutionary project, which was apparently oriented to put an end to the social, political and economic inequalities in Paraguay, began to carry out markedly criminal activities, which included bank robberies, kidnappings, assassinations, terrorist attacks and armed confrontations. Its strategies and modus operandi utilized by the Armed Revolutionary Forces of Colombia (FARC). Paraguay features a farm sector in a state of crisis, in which cattle-ranchers, peasants and agro-exporting companies live in a constant strife. The Paraguayan Departments that are the most affected by this situation are Concepcion, San Pedro, Canindeyu y Caazapa, which also suffer from a weak government presence. This deficiency has made these departments ripe for drug-trafficking activity by Brazilian groups such as Primer Comando Capital (i.e., First Capital command), also PCC and Comando Vermelho, (i.e., The Red Command). That is why many peasants, now recruited by EPP, have joined the drug-trafficking business and that, not only as marihuana growers but as "campanas" (i.e., early warning sentinels) for the organization. This helps shape their attitudes for their future involvement in all areas of drug-trafficking. Paraguayan society is the result of social inequity and inequality, such as those resulting from a lack of opportunity. Although Paraguay has successfully recovered from the last world economic crisis, economic growth, by itself, does not ensure an improvement in the quality of life. As long as such economic and social gaps persist and the government fails to enact the policies that would result in a more just society and toward EPP neutralization or containment, the latter is bound to grow stronger. In this context, the situation in Paraguay calls for more research into the EPP phenomenon. It would also seem necessary for Paraguay to promote an open national debate that includes all sectors of society in order to raise consciousness and to induce society to take actual steps to eliminate the EPP, as well as any other group that might arise in the immediate future. EPP has strong connections with the Frente Patriotico Manuel Rodriguez in Chile and other armed groups and peasant movements in other countries of this region. Although most governments in the region are aware that the armed struggle is not a solution to current problems, it might be worth it to hold a regional debate about armed or insurgent groups in Latin American to seek common strategies and cooperation on dealing with them since the expansion of these armed groups is a problem for all. Details: Miami: Florida International University, Western Hemisphere Security Analysis Center, 2011. 57p. Source: Internet Resource: Western Hemisphere Security Analysis Center. Paper 31. Accessed October 6, 2016 at: http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1030&context=whemsac Year: 2011 Country: Paraguay URL: http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1030&context=whemsac Shelf Number: 140539 Keywords: Drug TraffickingHomicidesInequalityKidnappingsSocioeconomic Conditions and CrimeTerrorismViolence |
Author: Joseph, Regina Title: Rio and the Reds: The Comando Vermelho, Organized Crime and Brazil's Economic Ascent Summary: Brazil‟s growing status as a potential world power cannot obscure the characteristics of its other reality: that of a country with vast inequalities and high crime rates. The Comando Vermelho, the most prominent organized crime syndicate in Rio de Janeiro, besieges the beauty and charm that attracts tourists to this city. The CV arose not only as a product of the political dictatorship of the seventies, but also of the disenfranchised urban poor crammed into Rio's favela slums. Today, the CV presents a powerful challenge to the State's control of parts of Rio territory. As Brazil‟s soft power projection grows, it is seriously challenged by its capacity to eliminate organized crime. Economic growth is not sufficient to destroy a deeply embedded organization like the CV. In fact, Brazil's success may yet further retrench the CV's activities. Culpability for organized crime cannot be merely limited to the gangs, but must also be shared among the willing consumers, among whom can be found educated and elite members of society, as well as the impoverished and desperate. The Brazilian government needs a top-down response addressing the schism between rich and poor. However, Brazil's citizens must also take responsibility and forge a bottom-up response to the drug- and corruption-riddled elements of its most respected members of society. Brazil must target reform across public health, housing, education and above all, law enforcement. Without such changes, Brazil will remain a two-track democracy. Rio's wealthy will still be able to revel in the city's beauty, albeit from behind armored cars and fortified mansions, while the city's poor will yield-either as victims or perpetrators-to the desperate measures of organized crime. Details: Miami: Florida International University, Western Hemisphere Security Analysis Center, 2011. 37p. Source: Internet Resource: Western Hemisphere Security Analysis Center. Paper 36: Student's Paper Series: Accessed October 6, 2016 at: http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1035&context=whemsac Year: 2011 Country: Brazil URL: http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1035&context=whemsac Shelf Number: 140585 Keywords: FavelasInequalityOrganized CrimePovertySocioeconomic Conditions and Crime |
Author: Steelman, Burle G. Title: Examining World-Systems and Income Inequality Effects on Incarceration Rates: A Cross-National Study Summary: Numerous studies find a positive relationship between income inequality and incarceration rates within countries. Other scholars note inequality, as an explanatory variable for differences in incarceration rates, lacks statistical significance. I confirm the positive relationship between increased inequality and increased incarceration rates in initial analyses, but find when tested with additional explanatory variables, income inequality loses its significance as a predictor of incarceration rates. In this study, I examine this relationship to provide additional context for the circumstances under which inequality influences incarceration rates, and when other factors attenuate the effect of inequality. Not only do I control for crime rates, using homicide rates, but include a control for drug offense rates not noted in earlier studies. Given the paucity of research regarding world-systems theory and criminological outcomes, I examine the role of position in the world-system on incarceration rates and other cogent variables. Results indicate no direct relationship between world systems position (WSP) and incarceration rates but indicate strong relationships between WSP and homicide rates and drug offense rates. This cross-national study examines correlates of rates of incarceration for 77 countries from 1994 through 2008. I provide a description of trends in incarceration rates, inequality, wealth, democracy, urbanization, homicide rates, drug offense rates, and other societal measures over the past 15 years. Global trends are broken down comparatively by region. Details: Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma, 2016. 115p. Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: Accessed October 20, 2016 at: https://shareok.org/bitstream/handle/11244/41709/2016_Steelman_Burle_Dissertation_Examining_World_Systems_and_Income-Inequality_Effects_on_Incarceration_Rates_A_Cross-National_Study.pdf?sequence=2 Year: 2016 Country: International URL: https://shareok.org/bitstream/handle/11244/41709/2016_Steelman_Burle_Dissertation_Examining_World_Systems_and_Income-Inequality_Effects_on_Incarceration_Rates_A_Cross-National_Study.pdf?sequence=2 Shelf Number: 144832 Keywords: Imprisonment RatesIncarceration RatesInequality |
Author: Roshani, Niousha Title: Grassroots Perspectives on Hate Speech, Race, & Inequality in Brazil & Colombia Summary: Across Latin America, online and digitally mediated racist speech directed at Afro-descendant youth has intensified existing racial stigma and contributed to the marginalization of minority groups in both online and offline contexts. Racist speech is not a new phenomenon in the region. However, such speech is often amplified through digital media platforms, including social media, and some claim its increasing prevalence may be contributing to the normalization of racism. While racist speech online is prominent in both Brazil and Colombia, studies focused on Latin America are extremely limited and have addressed the overarching theme of online hate speech. Through interviews with leaders of civil society organizations (CSOs) and a review of existing literature, this study discusses efforts and interventions that CSOs have employed to counter racial stigma faced by the collective population of Afro-descendant youth in an attempt to understand and examine signs of impact related to hate speech in Brazil and Colombia, distinct from existing overarching studies of online hate speech. Informed by in-depth conversations with practitioners working in the field, and working closely with collaborating institutions that directly serve Afro-descendent youth, the case study presents an overview of the environment and context within which Afro-descendent youth impacted by racist speech exist. The interviews illustrate that most CSOs view digital racism as an extension of historical racial inequality. This case study documents the efforts of CSOs in the region who are helping to support the actions of young Afro-descendants to occupy roles historically denied to them, thereby deconstructing negative perceptions and re-claiming representations of their identities and realities. Details: Cambridge, MA: Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society Research, 2016. 22p. Source: Internet Resource: Research Publication No. 2016-18: Accessed December 14, 2016 at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2882234 Year: 2016 Country: Latin America URL: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2882234 Shelf Number: 144912 Keywords: Hate CrimesHate SpeechInequalityRacial BiasRacial Discrimination |
Author: Buonanno, Paolo Title: Inequality, Crime, and the Long-Run Legacy of Slavery Summary: Estimating the effect of inequality on crime is challenging due to reverse causality and omitted variable bias. This paper addresses these concerns by exploiting the fact that, as suggested by recent scholarly research, the legacy of slavery is largely manifested in persistent levels of economic inequality. Municipality-level economic inequality in Colombia is instrumented with a census-based measure of the proportion of slaves before the abolition of slavery in the nineteenth century. It is found that inequality increases both property crime and violent crime. The estimates are robust to including traditional determinants of crime (like population density, proportion of young males, average education level, quality of law enforcement institutions, and overall economic activity), as well as geographic characteristics that may be correlated with both the slave economy and with crime, and current ethnic differences. Policies aiming at reducing structural crime should focus on reducing economic inequality. Details: Washington, DC: Inter-American Development Bank, 2017. 35p. Source: Internet Resource: IDB WORKING PAPER SERIES No. IDB-WP-793: Accessed May 24, 2017 at: https://publications.iadb.org/bitstream/handle/11319/8248/Inequality-Crime-and-the-Long-Run-Legacy-of-Slavery.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y Year: 2017 Country: United States URL: https://publications.iadb.org/bitstream/handle/11319/8248/Inequality-Crime-and-the-Long-Run-Legacy-of-Slavery.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y Shelf Number: 145757 Keywords: Crime RateHomicidesInequalityPovertySlavery |
Author: Mills, Elizabeth Title: Turning the Tide: The Role of Collective Action for Addressing Structural and Gender-based Violence in South Africa Summary: The case study discussed in this Evidence Report explores the value and limitations of collective action in challenging the community, political, social and economic institutions that reinforce harmful masculinities and gender norms related to sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV). As such, the concept of structural violence is used to locate SGBV in a social, economic and political context that draws histories of entrenched inequalities in South Africa into the present. The research findings reinforce a relational and constructed understanding of gender emphasising that gender norms can be reconfigured and positively transformed. We argue that this transformation can be catalysed through networked and multidimensional strategies of collective action that engage the personal agency of men and women and their interpersonal relationships at multiple levels and across boundaries of social class, race and gender. This collectivity needs to be conscious of and engaged with the structural inequalities that deeply influence trajectories of change. Citizens and civil society must work with the institutions - political, religious, social and economic - that reinforce structural violence in order to ensure their accountability in ending SGBV. Details: Brighton, UK: Institute of Development Studies, 2015. 59p. Source: Internet Resource: Evidence Report No. 118: Accessed May 27, 2017 at: https://opendocs.ids.ac.uk/opendocs/bitstream/handle/123456789/5858/ER118_TurningtheTide.pdf?sequence=1 Year: 2015 Country: South Africa URL: https://opendocs.ids.ac.uk/opendocs/bitstream/handle/123456789/5858/ER118_TurningtheTide.pdf?sequence=1 Shelf Number: 145830 Keywords: Gender-Based ViolenceInequalityViolenceViolence Against Women |
Author: Falk, Armin Title: Status Inequality, Moral Disengagement and Violence Summary: This paper studies the causal effect of status differences on moral disengagement and violence. To measure violent behavior, in the experiment, a subject can inflict a painful electric shock on another subject in return for money. We exogenously vary relative status in the realm of sexual attractiveness. In three between-subject conditions, the assigned other subject is either of higher, lower or equal status. The incidence of electric shocks is substantially higher among subjects matched with higher- and lower-status others, relative to subjects matched with equal-status others. This causal evidence on the role of status inequality on violence suggests an important societal cost of economic and social inequalities Details: Bonn, Germany: IZA - Institute of Labor Economics, 2017. 31p. Source: Internet Resource: IZA DP No. 10921: Accessed September 7, 2017 at: http://ftp.iza.org/dp10921.pdf Year: 2017 Country: Germany URL: http://ftp.iza.org/dp10921.pdf Shelf Number: 147143 Keywords: InequalityMoralitySocioeconomic Status and CrimeViolent Crime |
Author: Alstadsaeter, Annette Title: Tax Evasion and Inequality Summary: This paper attempts to estimate the size and distribution of tax evasion in rich countries. We combine random audits - the key source used to study tax evasion so far - with new micro-data leaked from large offshore financial institutions - HSBC Switzerland ("Swiss leaks") and Mossack Fonseca ("Panama Papers" ) - matched to population-wide wealth records in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. We find that tax evasion rises sharply with wealth, a phenomenon random audits fail to capture. On average about 3% of personal taxes are evaded in Scandinavia, but this figure rises to close to 30% in the top 0.01% of the wealth distribution, a group that includes households with more than $45 million in net wealth. A simple model of the supply of tax evasion services can explain why evasion rises steeply with wealth. Taking tax evasion into account increases the rise in inequality seen in tax data since the 1970s markedly, highlighting the need to move beyond tax data to capture income and wealth at the top, even in countries where tax compliance is generally high. We also find that after reducing tax evasion - by using tax amnesties - tax evaders do not legally avoid taxes more. This result suggests that fighting tax evasion can be an effective way to collect more tax revenue from the very wealthy. Details: Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research, 2017. 56p. Source: Internet Resource: NBER Working Paper No. 23772: Accessed September 11, 2017 at: http://www.nber.org/papers/w23772.pdf Year: 2017 Country: Europe URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w23772.pdf Shelf Number: 147208 Keywords: Financial CrimeInequalityTax Evasion |
Author: Chakraborti, Neil Title: Public authority commitment and action to eliminate targeted harassment and violence Summary: 'How Fair is Britain?', the Equality and Human Rights Commission's (the Commission's) first Triennial Review of inequality in 2010, identified targeted harassment as one of the most important challenges to human rights, equality and good relations facing Britain today. The Commission uses the term 'targeted harassment and violence' (hereafter referred to as targeted harassment) to describe any unwanted conduct, violence, harassment, or abuse targeted at a person because of their age, disability, gender, race, religion or belief, sexual orientation, transgender status or a combination of these characteristics. The reality faced by many people across Britain is one of being targeted on a daily basis because of who they are. The Commission initiated this project in January 2010, to examine public authority action to eliminate targeted harassment. At that time, the evidence base on public authorities' responses to targeted harassment was unsystematic and underdeveloped. When the research was conducted, public authorities were expected to prevent harassment as a result of different forms of disability, gender and race equality legislation. The Equality Act 2010 introduced a new Public Sector Equality Duty from April 2011. It applies in England, Scotland and Wales. This duty covers age, disability, gender, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion and belief and sexual orientation and will ensure that public authorities have due regard to the need to: - eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other conduct that is prohibited by or under this Act; - advance equality of opportunity between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it; and - foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it. The public authorities included in the research were those in the criminal justice system, including the Police, Probation, Crown Prosecution Services/Crown Office Prosecutor Fiscal Service, and additionally, Local Authorities, Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) and Passenger Transport Executives. Details: Manchester, UK: Equality and Human Rights Commission, 2011. 171p. Source: Internet Resource: Research report 74: Accessed September 28, 2017 at: https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/sites/default/files/rr74_targeted_harassment.pdf Year: 2011 Country: United Kingdom URL: https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/sites/default/files/rr74_targeted_harassment.pdf Shelf Number: 131583 Keywords: Bias-Motivated CrimeDiscriminationHarassmentHate CrimesInequality |
Author: Pol, Janneke Title: Coping with Violence in Brazil: Violence, Fear and 'The Other' in Rio de Janeiro Summary: Rio de Janeiro forms an emblematic case of endemic urban violence. Gangs of drugs traffickers, police forces, death squads, militias, vigilante groups, private security organizations and some individual citizens, mark the cities violent fabric. The widespread violence, and the fear and insecurity it generates, shape the daily lives of the citizens. Rio de Janeiro, also known as 'divided city', is furthermore characterized by high levels of inequality and social exclusion. Different social groups are therefore related to armed actors in a different way and have different recourses to protect themselves against them. This study analyses how people perceive and deal with urban violence, within the context of the mutual relationship between the neighboring residents of a favela and a middle class neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro. Further, the question whether the residents interact or deal with each other in order to cope with violence, is explored. Based on ethnographic fieldwork I argue how perceptions about violence and insecurity, and strategies to deal with it, are structured by the way the residents of these neighborhoods relate to each other. I therefore build upon notions about urban violence, fear and insecurity, Othering and coping strategies. Details: Utrecht, NETH: University Utrecht, 2009. 53p. Source: Internet Resource: Thesis: Accessed October 19, 2017 at: https://dspace.library.uu.nl/handle/1874/40518 Year: 2009 Country: Brazil URL: https://dspace.library.uu.nl/handle/1874/40518 Shelf Number: 147728 Keywords: Favelas Gangs InequalitySlums Urban Violence Violent Crime |