Good governance and crime rates in Malaysia

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to relate the quality of governance with crime in Malaysia. The study also identifies the best good governance tool to fight against crime in Malaysia. Design/methodology/approach: The study uses time-series data on crime rates and six measures of governance: vo...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Habibullah, Muzafar Shah, Din, Badariah, Abdul Hamid, Baharom
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Emerald Group Publishing 2016
Online Access:http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/43412/
http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/43412/1/Good%20governance%20and%20crime%20rates%20in%20Malaysia.pdf
_version_ 1848850221691305984
author Habibullah, Muzafar Shah
Din, Badariah
Abdul Hamid, Baharom
author_facet Habibullah, Muzafar Shah
Din, Badariah
Abdul Hamid, Baharom
author_sort Habibullah, Muzafar Shah
building UPM Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to relate the quality of governance with crime in Malaysia. The study also identifies the best good governance tool to fight against crime in Malaysia. Design/methodology/approach: The study uses time-series data on crime rates and six measures of governance: voice and accountability, political stability, government effectiveness, regulatory quality, rule of law and control of corruption. In this study the authors employed the popular autoregressive distributed lagged modeling approach to estimate the long-run model of crime and governance. Findings: The authors test the hypothesis that good governance lowers crime rates (total crime, violent and property crimes). The results suggest a negative relationship between crime rates and good governance in Malaysia. This suggests that good governance reduces crime rates in Malaysia. Research limitations/implications: The limitations of this study is the short time-series used in the analysis which is from 1996 to 2009. Practical implications: This study provides evidence that the practice of good governance, for example, lower corruption, good policing and judicial system can mitigate crime in Malaysia. Social implications: The implementation of good governance will protect property right of individuals, business sector and the society as a whole, and this will enhance prosperity of a nation. Originality/value: This study provide the first empirical evidence that linking between crime and good governance in Malaysia.
first_indexed 2025-11-15T10:02:51Z
format Article
id upm-43412
institution Universiti Putra Malaysia
institution_category Local University
language English
last_indexed 2025-11-15T10:02:51Z
publishDate 2016
publisher Emerald Group Publishing
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling upm-434122016-05-19T02:18:15Z http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/43412/ Good governance and crime rates in Malaysia Habibullah, Muzafar Shah Din, Badariah Abdul Hamid, Baharom Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to relate the quality of governance with crime in Malaysia. The study also identifies the best good governance tool to fight against crime in Malaysia. Design/methodology/approach: The study uses time-series data on crime rates and six measures of governance: voice and accountability, political stability, government effectiveness, regulatory quality, rule of law and control of corruption. In this study the authors employed the popular autoregressive distributed lagged modeling approach to estimate the long-run model of crime and governance. Findings: The authors test the hypothesis that good governance lowers crime rates (total crime, violent and property crimes). The results suggest a negative relationship between crime rates and good governance in Malaysia. This suggests that good governance reduces crime rates in Malaysia. Research limitations/implications: The limitations of this study is the short time-series used in the analysis which is from 1996 to 2009. Practical implications: This study provides evidence that the practice of good governance, for example, lower corruption, good policing and judicial system can mitigate crime in Malaysia. Social implications: The implementation of good governance will protect property right of individuals, business sector and the society as a whole, and this will enhance prosperity of a nation. Originality/value: This study provide the first empirical evidence that linking between crime and good governance in Malaysia. Emerald Group Publishing 2016 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/43412/1/Good%20governance%20and%20crime%20rates%20in%20Malaysia.pdf Habibullah, Muzafar Shah and Din, Badariah and Abdul Hamid, Baharom (2016) Good governance and crime rates in Malaysia. International Journal of Social Economics, 43 (3). pp. 308-320. ISSN 0306-8293; ESSN: 1758-6712 http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/IJSE-05-2014-0096 10.1108/IJSE-05-2014-0096
spellingShingle Habibullah, Muzafar Shah
Din, Badariah
Abdul Hamid, Baharom
Good governance and crime rates in Malaysia
title Good governance and crime rates in Malaysia
title_full Good governance and crime rates in Malaysia
title_fullStr Good governance and crime rates in Malaysia
title_full_unstemmed Good governance and crime rates in Malaysia
title_short Good governance and crime rates in Malaysia
title_sort good governance and crime rates in malaysia
url http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/43412/
http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/43412/
http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/43412/
http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/43412/1/Good%20governance%20and%20crime%20rates%20in%20Malaysia.pdf