Psychological and environmental empirics of crimes in Pakistan

• Published date: 01 December 2022
• Author: Sadia Yasmin,Muhammad Shahid Hassan,Noman Arshed,Muhammad Naveed Tahir
• Date: 01 December 2022
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2775

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Psychological and environmental empirics of crimes in Pakistan

Sadia Yasmin

1

| Muhammad Shahid Hassan

2

| Noman Arshed

2

|

Muhammad Naveed Tahir

3

1

Department of Banking and Finance,

University of Management and Technology,

Lahore, Pakistan

2

Department of Economics and Statistics,

University of Management and Technology,

Lahore, Pakistan

3

Department of Economics, Forman Christian

College University, Lahore, Pakistan

Correspondence

Noman Arshed, Department of Economics and

Statistics, University of Management and

Technology, Lahore, Pakistan.

Email: noman.arshed@umt.edu.pk

Literature provides rich evidence of the role of economic development, environmen-

tal quality, and psychological stress' prevalence on the deployment of human efforts

in criminal activities. This study explores the role of HDI, CO

2

, and Prevalence of

Depression against total, violent, and nonviolent crimes in Pakistan between 1990

and 2017. Analysis based on ARDL bounds testing model which proposes that human

development, environment quality, and sound mind leads to a decrease in the

involvement in criminal activities. The intensity of effects is different for total, vio-

lent, and nonviolent crime rates. Government should focus on development expendi-

tures coupled with improving the quality of the environment and mind.

KEYWORDS

ARDL, depression prevalence, education, environmental quality, human development

1|INTRODUCTION

A crime, is a voluntary act prohibited by the law permanently or for a

certain time period to safeguard the public and is punishable by the

government (Marshall & Clark, 1952). Crime is often used as an indica-

tor of the overall health and strength of the morality of the commu-

nity. More precisely, economists are concerned with public policies

(i.e., criminal justice and other economic health factors) that influence

the incidence of crime. Through an economic lens, anotable study of

crime conducted by Nobel Prize winning economist (Becker, 1968),

which discussed the time allocation in illegal activities. According to

Islamic economics, to kill an innocent soul is equivalent to killing

whole mankind (Al-Quran, 5:32), which indicates the illegality of

crimes.

The study of crime is a multi-dimensional practice. A number of

studies in criminology, sociology, psychology, law, and economics

have attempted to identify the socio-economic determinants (unem-

ployment, education, poverty, etc.) and demographic determinants

(urbanization, population density) of crime globally.

The customary determinants - identified as unemployment by

Papps and Winkelmann (2000), education by Coomer (2003), urbaniza-

tion by Gillani et al. (2009), income inequality by Baharom and

Habibullah (2009), Habibullah and Baharom (2009), and Cobham

(2014) are the causes of crime, whereas education is the most influen-

tial determinant which is affecting individuals' decisions to commit

crimes (Anwar et al., 2015; Asghar et al., 2016). Dynamic models have

also been developed and used in the economics of crime which sanc-

tioned the combination of high households consumption and crime.

Trogdon (2006), Altindag (2012), and Groenqvist (2011) have shown

the significant impact of inflation on crime. Although, previously, stud-

ies lacked in exploring the determinants as depression and environmen-

tal quality as possible determinants to crime.

Ongoing criminal behavior started with the history of mankind

and apprehended the interest of every society. Adam Smith, the

father of economics, mentioned in his book “The Wealth of Nations

(1776)”about the accretion of wealth by people, similarly he talked

about the inspiration to commit crime and the demand to secure peo-

ple from crime when they are collecting wealth. Crime, is largely con-

sidered as the divergent behavior of a person against the spirit of the

law. It can be caused by several factors (i.e., mental illness, social ten-

sions, economic disturbance etc.). In Regea et al. (2009) view crime is

also endorsed due to mental sickness, frustration and anger. Criminal

activities hinder the social, physical, psychological evolution and eco-

nomic growth of a country (Dutta & Husain, 2009).

The economics of criminology, primarily based on Becker's (1968)

notion, which reflects crime as a type of work, as it is time taking

(alongside cost of the probability of decrease in wage, in future

employment, imprisonment, physical torture, penalties, and mental

guilt of criminal activity) and yields economic benefits. A person

chooses among employment and crime at a specified time to generate

Received: 20 August 2020 Revised: 30 August 2021 Accepted: 4 October 2021

DOI: 10.1002/pa.2775

J Public Affairs. 2022;22(Suppl. 1):e2775. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/pa © 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. 1of11

https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2775