Cashlessness and Crime: A Cross-National Investigation of the Association Between Electronic Payment System Use and Instrumental Offending

• In Event: Trends in and Explanations of Cross-National Violence Rates

Abstract

Money that exists in a physical form of currency, often referred to as “cash,” has a special place in the etiology of instrumental crime. Cash has special properties – durable value, liquidity, and anonymity – that make it the goal of or the basis for much criminal activity. Over the last two decades cash has begun to lose its global preeminence to digital payment systems. A small literature suggests this shift may have the unexpected benefit of reducing some forms of crime. Some national governments have begun to encourage digital payment systems and discourage cash use in an effort to reduce criminal or terrorist activity and to promote stability in developing nations. Using data from the World Bank’s Global Financial Inclusion Index in samples of 58 to 71 countries, we investigated the relationship between national-level rates of digital payment system use and rates of instrumental street crime. Our results are equivocal, suggesting any cashless-crime association may vary substantially across nations, regions, and crime types.

Authors

• William Alex Pridemore, University at Albany, SUNY

• Sean Patrick Roche, University at Albany, SUNY

• Meghan L. Rogers, University at Albany, SUNY