Steal or starve: does investing in policies against hunger reduce crime? An evaluation of the community restaurant program in São Paulo

• Grant number: 24/07211-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: August 01, 2024
• End date: December 31, 2027
• Field of knowledge: Interdisciplinary Subjects
• Principal Investigator: João Luiz Becker
• Grantee: Fabiano Jorge Soares
• Host Institution: Escola de Administração de Empresas de São Paulo (EAESP). Fundação Getúlio Vargas (FGV). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 20/07019-2 - FGV Analytics - Public Security Policies Analytics Research Center, AP.NPOP
• Associated scholarship(s): 25/12346-6 - Understanding Hunger-Driven Crime: Advancing Methodological Approaches for Geospatial Policy Analysis, BE.EP.DR

Abstract

This plan presents the activities for a doctoral fellow allocated to the "Geospatial Data Platform" project at the Center for Science Applied to Security. The research will focus on developing a public policy evaluation to understand the relationship between crimes motivated by situations of extreme need, in this case, hunger, and food supply units of the community restaurant program in the city of São Paulo through the development of a geospatial platform, aiming to verify the following hypothesis: can the number of criminal offenses with less offensive potential (i.e. starvation theft) be reduced through investment in policies to combat hunger? The study seeks to develop both theoretical contributions to the field of knowledge of evaluating evidence-based public policies and reducing crime based on action that considers the causes of the problem.