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Results for poverty and crime

7 results found

Author: Hanum, Mari Rønning

Title: Fear of Crime in Spaces of Poverty and Disorder : Youth's coping strategies in poor urban neighbourhoods in Nairobi

Summary: After the post-election violence in Kenya 2007/2008, Nairobi has witnessed an increased society of fear, which in turn has altered the spatiality of difference in many areas. Moreover, the emergence of criminal youth gangs during the last decade and the civil wars in neighbouring countries that have resulted in increased weapon smuggling, are major contributors to crime and other insecurities. The purpose of this research is to identify youth’s coping strategies to deal with fear of crime in Eastlands, a poor urban area in Nairobi. The thesis wants to explore the dimensions of place, social relations and social identities through the eyes of the youth in Eastlands, in order to analyse how these dimensions affect their fear of crime. The aim has not only been to identify but also to understand their opted coping strategies. Both young people’s perceptions and observation carried out in the area have provided the necessary insights in order to understand the complexity of their identities, as well as other factors that may influence fear of crime.

Details: Oslo: University of Oslo, 2011. 121p.

Source: Internet Resource: Thesis: Accessed July 2, 2013 at: https://www.duo.uio.no/handle/10852/15949

Year: 2011

Country: Kenya

URL: https://www.duo.uio.no/handle/10852/15949

Shelf Number: 129507

Keywords:
Fear of Crime (Nairobi, Kenya)
Neighborhoods and Crime
Poverty and Crime
Urban Areas
Youth Gangs

Author: Okombo, Okath

Title: The Challenge of Mending Ethnic Relations in the Nairobi Slums

Summary: Nairobi’s informal settlements and slums were the epicentre of the post-election violence (PEV) that erupted in December 2007 and led to massive destruction of property, looting, displacement and forceful eviction of some ethnic communities from their homes. In many cases, minority rival communities were forced to relocate to other estates where their community members constitute a dominant group. Slum-based vigilante and militia groups consolidated themselves into two main rival factions in order to defend their communities and lawlessness threatened to engulf the city. Despite the fact that youth were at the centre of the crisis, most interventions that were initiated soon after the PEV failed to involve them. It is against this background that the Citizens Against Violence (CAVi) in partnership with the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) sought to make a contribution to the country’s peace restoration effort, targeting six affected slums in Nairobi. In 2008, the “slum tenants and landlords dialogues” series began. This was a special intervention to reduce ethnic tension and reconcile the two groups so that residents could return to their homes. This led to the formation of interest groups representing the landlords and tenants respectively for purposes of formal negotiation, paving the way for some landlords to recover their houses and tenants to move back. The initiative also enabled youth and community leaders to deliberate on postpoll challenges in their estates as a step towards finding sustainable solutions to violence. Issues of cultural assimilation, access to land titles, widespread poverty and unemployment among the youth and fanatical support for some political players emerged as challenges that could still precipitate future ethnic conflicts. Candid discussions provoked many of the young leaders in the slums to aspire for better living conditions and improved socio-ethnic relations. This led in 2009 to the launch of the Nairobi Slums Assembly, a forum in which the young leaders from the six slums met every month to discuss specific issues affecting their particular environments and to come up with proposals which they then shared with the provincial administration, the police and elected leaders. In many cases, this has led to positive change as well as the building of bridges with the authorities. However, more work needs to be done. Integrated ethnic co-existence may be difficult to achieve in the urban slums without a multi-pronged effort by both government and civil society. It is our hope that sharing the findings of the project with a wider group of stakeholders will mobilize public interest and goodwill towards improving the conditions in the Nairobi slums for sustainable peace and socio-economic development.

Details: Nairobi, Kenya: Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES), 2010. 61p.

Source: Internet Resource: Accessed August 2, 2013 at: http://library.fes.de/pdf-files/bueros/kenia/07884.pdf

Year: 2010

Country: Kenya

URL: http://library.fes.de/pdf-files/bueros/kenia/07884.pdf

Shelf Number: 129508

Keywords:
Looting
Poverty and Crime
Slums (Nairobi, Kenya)
Socioeconomic Conditions
Vigilantism
Violence

Author: Munyo, Ignacio

Title: The Effects of Real Exchange Rate Fluctuations on the Gender Wage Gap and Domestic Violence in Uruguay

Summary: In this paper, we bring to light the experiences resulting from the significant depreciation of the Uruguayan real exchange rate between 2002 and 2003, followed by an equally considerable appreciation between 2004 and 2010. We explore the link between these fluctuations and the incidence of domestic violence taking place in Uruguay. The real exchange rate is a measure of the relative price between tradable and nontradable goods. While men are traditionally employed in tradable industries, such as manufacturing, women are more likely to work in nontradable industries, such as the service sector. A change in the real exchange rate, therefore, can affect the potential wages of men differently from those of women. In line with the models that represent household bargaining, an increase in the real exchange rate can generate an increase in the bargaining power of men relative to that of women within the household. We present evidence that it raises the frequency of domestic violence. This holds true in rich and poor areas of the city.

Details: Washington, DC: Inter-American Development Bank, 2015. 21p.

Source: Internet Resource: IDB WORKING PAPER SERIES No. IDB-WP-618 : Accessed May 1, 2017 at: https://publications.iadb.org/bitstream/handle/11319/7211/ICS_WP_Effects_Real_Exchange_Rate_Fluctuations_on_Gender_Wage_Gap_and_Domestic_Violence_Uruguay.pdf?sequence=1

Year: 2015

Country: Uruguay

URL: https://publications.iadb.org/bitstream/handle/11319/7211/ICS_WP_Effects_Real_Exchange_Rate_Fluctuations_on_Gender_Wage_Gap_and_Domestic_Violence_Uruguay.pdf?sequence=1

Shelf Number: 145222

Keywords:
Domestic Violence
Economics of Crime
Poverty and Crime
Violence Against Women

Author: Marcus, Rachel

Title: Poverty and violations of children's right to protection in low- and middle-income countries: A review of the evidence

Summary: Why do up to 1.5 billion children suffer physical violence every year? Why do up to 2251 million children suffer sexual violence every year? Why are 14.2 million girls every year married off to start adult lives in adolescence or before?2 Why are considerable numbers of young children left alone for long hours without competent adult supervision? Historically, in studies of violence against children in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, explanations emphasised the role of individual psychological factors. The pendulum swung in the 1960s to highlight structural forces contributing to the abuse and neglect of children, in particular poverty and unemployment. In more recent years, understanding of the factors underlying violations of children's right to protection has drawn on an ecological model that emphasises factors at several levels: individual, family, household, community and broader society (Frederick and Goddard, 2007). The international child protection community generally sees three broad sets of factors as underlying many child protection violations: sociocultural norms, weak protective structures and poverty or deprivation. However, within this community there are divergences of opinion concerning the extent to which poverty is a significant underlying or risk factor. Interviews with child protection and poverty specialists and an electronic survey conducted for this research programme revealed a notable split. The majority considered poverty an important and often-neglected factor underpinning many child protection violations, but a significant number of respondents highlighted the fact that abuse, exploitation and neglect of children occurs across all socioeconomic groups, and thus felt economic deprivation played a more minor role. Perspectives varied considerably across different types of violation, with most respondents feeling that economic deprivation was a critical factor in early marriage, inadequate care and sexual exploitation, but relatively fewer convinced it was an important factor underpinning corporal punishment or sexual abuse. The electronic survey, like the majority of the literature examined for this review, focuses on children's vulnerability to protection violations, not whether poverty increases the risk of perpetrating abuse. Broadly, these perspectives concur with insights from the literature examined for this study. Despite increased recognition of the importance of effective joined-up child protection systems (e.g. World Vision, 2011; Wulcyzn et al., 2010), state agencies charged with child protection in most low- and middle-income countries are severely underfunded (Everychild, 2010b; Holmes and Jones, 2009). At the same time, there is a global move towards strengthening social protection - much of which has a partial focus on children in poverty, and thus is directing resources towards realising children's survival and development rights. In this context, there is growing interest in exploring the potential and limitations of social protection, human development and other anti-poverty programmes to reduce violations of children's protection rights - and of action to protect children's rights to promote better anti-poverty and human development outcomes. As a contribution to emerging practice and debate in this area, the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) and the Oak Foundation are undertaking a two-year programme of work to explore the potential for greater linkages between child protection and anti-poverty work in low- and middle-income countries. This report - the first output of the programme - has two main objectives: 1. To examine how far and in what ways poverty contributes to violations of children's rights to protection in four key areas - child marriage, sexual and physical violence against children and inadequate care of children - and thus to clarify the significance of poverty as an underlying or risk factor for these different violations of children's protection rights; and 2. To assess the strength of evidence concerning the relationship between poverty and child marriage, sexual and physical violence against children and inadequate care of children, and thus to identify knowledge gaps. It reviews evidence from low- and middle-income countries on the linkages between poverty and child marriage, sexual and physical violence against children and inadequate care of children. It also draws selectively on evidence from OECD countries in areas where the low- and middle-income country literature is sparse, or to highlight differences related to income and institutional capacity. It is intended as a detailed resource on the issues explored. Key findings are summarised in a short background note (Marcus, 2013). Other components of this programme include an adapted systematic review of the extent to which child protection policies and programmes involve attention to anti-poverty issues, and the contribution of antipoverty components to effective action on specific child protection issues (Marcus and Page, 2013); an electronic survey of practitioners and key informant interviews; and fieldwork exploring the relationship between poverty and violation of children's protection rights in Ethiopia, Uganda, and Vietnam. The programme is also exploring the potential for and different ways of promoting greater synergies between analysts and practitioners with anti-poverty and child protection foci.

Details: London: Overseas Development Institute, 2014. 97p.

Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 1, 2017 at: https://www.odi.org/sites/odi.org.uk/files/odi-assets/publications-opinion-files/9309.pdf

Year: 2014

Country: International

URL: https://www.odi.org/sites/odi.org.uk/files/odi-assets/publications-opinion-files/9309.pdf

Shelf Number: 145223

Keywords:
Child Abuse and Neglect
Child Maltreatment
Child Marriage
Child Protection
Child Sexual Abuse
Child Welfare
Poverty and Crime
Socioeconomic Conditions and Crime
Violence Against Children

Author: Sana, Olang

Title: Taking Stock of Socio-economic Challenges in the Nairobi Slums: An Inventory of the Pertinent Issues between January 2008 and November 2012

Summary: Kenya's post-2007 elections violence was a landmark event in the country's political history. The violence led to the death of over 1, 300 people, displacement of others, and destruction of property of unknown value especially in the then Nyanza, Western, Rift-valley and Coast provinces. Howevwer, the social cost of the violence was greater than the visible dislocations reported in the media and elsewhere. Over four and a half years after the violence, the social cost of the phenomenon still lives with the victims: survivors who suffered in not-so-visible ways, the internally displaced persons, people who lost property, victims of sexual assault, and people who sustained different kinds of physical and emotional injury. And whereas post -2007 elections crisis speeded up the pace of reforms in Kenya's body politic including the completion of the hitherto stalled constitutional review process, it is surprising that the Kenya government has made frail efforts to address the socio-economic needs of the communities and families affected by the scourge of violence. More surprisingly, very little attention to understand and act on the potential effects of post 2007 elections crisis on the forthcoming polls already slated for March 2013. The Nairobi slums are one area that was adversely affected by the December 2007-January 2008 post elections violence. The slums occupy one-eighth of the land space in Nairobi but host three-quarters of the city's population of four million people. Many factors combine to make the Nairobi slums the most violent and vulnerable neighborhoods in Nairobi. And as media reports indicate, post-election violence started in the Nairobi slums (Kibera) before it spread to other parts of the country. Consequently, the slums bore the heaviest brunt of the violence (relative to the up-market neighborhoods of Nairobi). A lot of information is still outside the public domain regarding how the violence erupted, immediate issues that provoked the violence, the ethnic character of the violence, the nature of disruptions wrought by the violence, and how various slum villages are coping with the trauma. Also outside the public domain is information regarding how the actual socio-economic conditions that prevail in the slums add to their violent character, and an exposition of some unresolved issues as well as emerging threats that could affect the stability of these neighborhoods both before and after the March 2013 polls. More importantly, there is an urgent need to re-examine the slums with reference to the Constitution of Kenya, 2010 and other gains so far made towards the implementation of the Constitution. Can the (new) Constitution be used as a reference document for increasing service delivery, advancing rights protection, and laying the foundation for the rule of law in the lives of the three million slums dwellers? What can be done in the pre-and post-March 2013 elections to not only rid the slums of their violent character but also to initiate programmes geared towards changing the face of the slum permanently? The purpose of this booklet is to provide some insight into the concerns outlined above. The authors of the booklet note that there has been some good progress towards addressing some or a combination of the above concerns especially in the aftermath of the violence. However, the intellectual discourse about the slums and violence is as yet embryonic and far too incoherent to guide focused interventions before and after the forthcoming polls. Primarily, the booklet aspires to provoke some thought about the slums and slum dwellers with a view to encouraging government policy makers, the civil society, the international community, the academia and other actors to make informed interventions geared towards improving the physical conditions in the slums without depriving the dwellers of dignity and rights.

Details: Nairobi, Kenya: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, 2012.

Source: Internet Resource: accessed June 14, 2017 at: http://library.fes.de/pdf-files/bueros/kenia/09860.pdf

Year: 2012

Country: Kenya

URL: http://library.fes.de/pdf-files/bueros/kenia/09860.pdf

Shelf Number: 146172

Keywords:
Neighborhoods and Crime
Poverty and Crime
Slums (Nairobi, Kenya)
Socioeconomic Conditions and Crime
Vigilantism
Violence

Author: Hombrados, Jorge Garcia

Title: What Is the Causal Effect of Poverty on Property Crime? Evidence from Chile

Summary: In February 27th 2010, an earthquake Richter magnitude 8.8 affects the south of Chile leading to increases in poverty rates in municipalities of the south and the center of Chile. This study exploits the variation in the exposure of Chilean municipalities to this exogenous income shock combining instrumental variables and spatial panel econometric models to investigate the causal effect of poverty on property crime at the municipality level in Chile. Preliminary results show that once endogeneity and spatial dependence are accounted for, poverty has a strong and significant effect on property crime, measured as incidence of car thefts. A 10 percentage points increase in poverty incidence increases in 54 the number of car thefts per 100,000 inhabitants. Furthermore, the study shows that the incidence of property crime of a municipality is not only affected by its poverty level but also by the level of poverty in neighbour municipalities. The significance of the effect of poverty on property crime is robust to alternative specifications, econometric models and to other robustness checks.

Details: Unpublished paper, 2015. 48p.

Source: Internet Resource: Accessed February 27, 2018 at: http://lacer.lacea.org/bitstream/handle/123456789/53025/lacea2015_effect_poverty_property_crime.pdf?sequence=1

Year: 2015

Country: Chile

URL: http://lacer.lacea.org/bitstream/handle/123456789/53025/lacea2015_effect_poverty_property_crime.pdf?sequence=1

Shelf Number: 149271

Keywords:
Automobile Theft
Car Thefts
Economics of Crime
Poverty and Crime
Property Crime
Socioeconomic Conditions and Crime
Vehicle Theft

Author: Corman, Hope

Title: Age Gradient in Female Crime: Welfare Reform as a Turning Point

Summary: This study explores how a major public policy change-the implementation of welfare reform in the U.S. in the 1990s-shaped the age gradient in female crime. We used FBI arrest data to investigate the age-patterning of the effects of welfare reform on women's arrests for property crime, the type of crime women are most likely to commit and that welfare reform has been shown to affect. We found that women's property crime arrest rates declined over the age span; that welfare reform led to an overall reduction in adult women's property crime arrests of about 4%, with the strongest effects for women ages 25-29 and in their 40s; that the effects were slightly stronger in states with stricter work incentives; and that the effects were much stronger in states with high criminal justice expenditures and staffing. The key contributions of this study are the focus on a broad and relevant policy-based "turning point" (change in circumstances that can lead people to launch or desist from criminal careers), addressing the general question of how a turning point shapes age gradients in criminal behavior, and the focus on women in the context of the age patterning of crime.

Details: Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research, 2018. 32p.

Source: Internet Resource: NBER Working Paper 24464: Accessed April 5, 2018 at: http://www.nber.org/papers/w24464

Year: 2018

Country: United States

URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w24464

Shelf Number: 149704

Keywords:
Female Offenders
Poverty and Crime
Property Crime
Socioeconomic Conditions and Crime
Welfare Reform
Women Offenders