Crime and Police Resources: The Street Crime Initiative

41 Pages Posted: 5 Dec 2005

See all articles by Stephen J. Machin

Stephen J. Machin

London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE) - Centre for Economic Performance (CEP); London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE) - Department of Economics

Olivier Marie

London School of Economics - Centre for Economic Performance (CEP)

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: November 2005

Abstract

In this paper we look at links between police resources and crime in a different way to the existing economics of crime work. To do so we focus on a large-scale policy intervention - the Street Crime Initiative - that was introduced in England and Wales in 2002. This allocated additional resources to some police force areas to combat street crime, whereas other forces did not receive any additional funding. Estimates derived from several empirical strategies show that robberies fell significantly in SCI police forces relative to non-SCI forces after the initiative was introduced. Moreover, the policy seems to have been a cost effective one, even after allowing for possible displacement or diffusion effects onto other crimes and adjacent areas. There is some heterogeneity in this positive net social benefit across different SCI police forces, suggesting that some police forces may have made better use of the extra resources than others. Overall, we reach the conclusion that increased police resources do in fact lead to lower crime, at least in the context of the SCI programme we study.

Keywords: street crime, police resources, cost effectiveness

JEL Classification: H00, H5, K42

Suggested Citation

Machin, Stephen J. and Marie, Olivier, Crime and Police Resources: The Street Crime Initiative (November 2005). IZA Discussion Paper No. 1853, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=866847 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.866847

Stephen J. Machin (Contact Author)

London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE) - Centre for Economic Performance (CEP) ( email )

Houghton Street
London WC2A 2AE
United Kingdom

London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE) - Department of Economics ( email )

Houghton Street
London WC2A 2AE
United Kingdom

Olivier Marie

London School of Economics - Centre for Economic Performance (CEP) ( email )

Houghton Street
London WC2A 2AE
United Kingdom

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