The production of property - related crimes in Kenya: An econometric investigation

Abstract

This paper studies factors that determine the production of property-related crimes in Kenya with view to prescribing policies that may lead to reduction in the crime rate. Policy makers have been prescribing various deterrence measures aimed at slowing down the growth of the crime rate to no avail. We suspect this failure emanates from lack of knowledge on the true effects of these deterrence measures on the crime rate. We consequently specified and estimated a model for the production of property-related crimes using TSLS on time series data a for the period 1963-1987, tested for effectiveness of selected deterrence and incapacitation variables on the production of property crime and drew policy implications for control of property -related crime. The most important findings of the study are that increased probability of imprisonment and increased deployment of policemen serve as effective deterrents to crime while increased severity of punishment does not deter criminals contrary to the widely held belief that it does. In terms of policy, the study suggests less use of severity as a deterrence measure, increased expenditure in the police force and a drive towards more equitable income distribution.