Systematization and correlation analysis of factors affecting crime level

The article presents the results of a study of crime factors in Russia, conducted within investigation of the characteristics of human potential. The first part of the work describes the theoretical aspects. A distinction is made between the concepts of factors and causes of crime, and the essential differences between these categories are highlighted. Thus, factor largely reflects a force external to a person, while reason lies in himself and in his psychology. The main factors influencing the crime rate are described: socio-economic (poverty, unemployment, level of income differentiation), demographic (age, gender, social status, education and place of residence), psychological (personality of criminal, situation in family and social environment), political (legislation and criminal code, political situation and security, effectiveness of law enforcement structures), cultural (traditions, customs, beliefs, language) and others (national, regional, religious). The second part presents results of the correlation analysis of the connections between the socio-economic factors and crime rate in the regions of the country based on the official statistics for 10 years from 2011 to 2020. The results of the analysis confirmed the impact on crime of such factors as the standard of living of the population, especially unemployment and income levels, and also revealed a relationship with indicators of the spread of higher education and alcohol consumption. In general, the economic motive for committing crimes was confirmed. The heterogeneity of the values of the correlation coefficients in the regional context is explained by the high degree of syntheticity of the general crime indicator, which aggregates all possible types of offenses, as well as a complex of regional features, including effectiveness of the law enforcement system. The results of the work can be used in further research for the purpose of clustering regions and analyzing the identified factors by certain types of crimes.