Socioeconomic Influences on Property Crime Rates: A Study in Virginia\u27s Counties

Most research on factors and causes of crime, whether property or violent crime, focuses on individuals’ behavior or their surrounding environment. In this research, I explore the idea of socioeconomic factors correlated to property crime. I conducted a retrospective design to fully explore United States Census data and crime data gathered by the Bureau of Justice Statistics to discover statistically significant variables connected to property crime. Significant findings were shown by average people per house and retail sales per capita in all counties. Additional significant findings were percent employment change and percent with high school degree or higher in low rate counties as well as percent in labor force, percent employment change, and percent poverty in moderate rate counties. These findings may help Sheriff’s Offices allocate more research and resources to investigating why these variables affect the rate of property crime and may be able to set the rising crime rates on a decreasing trend