R: The Effect of Punishment Regimes on Crime Rates

UScrime {MASS} | R Documentation

## The Effect of Punishment Regimes on Crime Rates

### Description

Criminologists are interested in the effect of punishment regimes on crime rates. This has been studied using aggregate data on 47 states of the USA for 1960 given in this data frame. The variables seem to have been re-scaled to convenient numbers.

### Usage

    UScrime

### Format

This data frame contains the following columns:

`M`

  percentage of males aged 14–24.

`So`

  indicator variable for a Southern state.

`Ed`

  mean years of schooling.

`Po1`

  police expenditure in 1960.

`Po2`

  police expenditure in 1959.

`LF`

  labour force participation rate.

`M.F`

  number of males per 1000 females.

`Pop`

  state population.

`NW`

  number of non-whites per 1000 people.

`U1`

  unemployment rate of urban males 14–24.

`U2`

  unemployment rate of urban males 35–39.

`GDP`

  gross domestic product per head.

`Ineq`

  income inequality.

`Prob`

  probability of imprisonment.

`Time`

  average time served in state prisons.

`y`

  rate of crimes in a particular category per head of population.

### Source

Ehrlich, I. (1973) Participation in illegitimate activities: a theoretical and empirical investigation. Journal of Political Economy, 81, 521–565.

Vandaele, W. (1978) Participation in illegitimate activities: Ehrlich revisited. In Deterrence and Incapacitation, eds A. Blumstein, J. Cohen and D. Nagin, pp. 270–335. US National Academy of Sciences.

### References

Venables, W. N. and Ripley, B. D. (1999) Modern Applied Statistics with S-PLUS. Third Edition. Springer.

[Package MASS version 7.3-50 Index]