Abstract
This study classifies crime theories into three categories: long-term (poor socialization), mid-term (deprivation of needed resources that could not be acquired through legal ways), and short-term (crime opportunity and low probability of clearance) factors, which have strong relationships with crimes. Empirical research articles, which used official crime statistics as raw data and presented a correlation matrix between crime and its potential causal variables from criminological journals, were analyzed by means of meta-analysis. The correlation coefficients were transformed into effect sizes. The average effect size of each potential independent variable was tested by means of a t-Test to examine whether it is statistically different from zero. The results support the hypothesis: Under the condition of poor socialization, the stronger the deprivation of the needed resources that could not be satisfied through legal means, the availability of a suitable target, the absence of capable guardians and if the estimated probability of clearance is low, the higher the probability of committing a criminal act would be.
| Keywords: | meta-analysis; crime theory |
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