Estimating an economic model of crime intervention : costs and benefits to bystanders

Abstract

This dissertation has the main aim of examining the determinants behind a bystander’s decision to intervene or not in a crime, particularly in acts of violence against women (VAW) and related abuse in Malta. In understanding the bystander’s thinking process better, more appropriate bystander intervention programmes could be designed and introduced in Malta to raise more awareness on the importance of bystanders in controlling the crime rate within a country, as well as to raise the crime intervention skills of the man in the street. Less crime means less social and economic costs. At the same time, this study sheds light on other insights. It analyses who is more likely to become a bystander, and whether the bystander effect is employed. Moreover, it looks into the extent of racism among the Maltese population based on how many bystanders consider the victim’s nationality before deciding to intervene, and into the level of trust that the Maltese have in the Malta Police Force (MPF), according to the amount of bystanders that have reported or would report cases of VAW and related abuse to it rather than to someone else. In this way, policy-makers could understand better whether this important resource for Malta’s national security is being utilised to its full capacity or not. If not, it means that there are resource misallocations and inefficiencies within the economy. This study is based upon a dataset of 298 observations, which was obtained from a questionnaire that was part of the ‘Breaking the Cycle of Violence’ project. This project was launched in Malta in 2018 by the Ministry for European Affairs and Equality. To arrive at the results, the dataset was cleaned, and three logistic regressions were run and interpreted through the software program STATA: Model 1 predicted the likelihood of becoming a bystander, Model 2 explained past behaviour, and Model 3 forecasted behavioural intent in VAW acts. The results achieved indicate how the bystanders’ knowledge and belief levels on VAW and related abuse are an important determinant of bystander intervention. The more aware and the more open-minded that bystanders are, the more equipped and hence, the more likely that they are to intervene. In addition, bystanders tend to be affected by the victim’s race. In Malta, specifically, people reported higher frequency of intervention intent when the victim was Maltese than when the victim was Romanian and hence, foreign. This alludes to racist behaviour. Furthermore, intervention is less likely to occur if its costs to the bystander exceed its benefits. The most common barriers to bystanders in Malta are their non-altruistic behaviour and the lack of proof. Finally, the Maltese do not really trust the MPF and its ability to tackle VAW and related abuse cases because they would rather report such scenarios to someone else rather than to the MPF. Crime is burdensome both socially and economically. This dissertation is based on this premise. It shows how bystanders and their proactive actions when confronted with a crime can be crucial to mitigate these costs because they can stop a crime from aggravating or occurring in the first place. Therefore, they can prevent the possibility of murder or serious injuries which have a lot of social and economic implications. Furthermore, since they serve as a complementary service to the police, they can identify crimes that the police are not yet aware of and hence, improve the functioning of this authority within the economy.