With both skyrocketing theft on campus and economic troubles making local and national headlines, the relationship between the two has come into question.
As rates of property crime have been rising across the across the nation, some experts have pointed to a link between the state of the economy and crime.
In the Penn patrol zone, there were 97 reported thefts from buildings in 2008 as of last month, which is up from 38 reports at that time last year.
"Property crime is strongly related to the economy," said Simon Hakim, an Economics professor at Temple University.
Vice President for Public Safety Maureen Rush said that a bad economy can increase rates of theft because "so many people are living on the edge and can't afford to eat, even if they are working."
She said that when this happens, "good people" turn to theft to make up for their loss in wages.
"Desperate times make people desperate," she said.
Unemployment is one of the main economic factors that affects crime rates.
"In the past, data has shown that when unemployment is high, crime level has gone up," Hakim said.
Nationwide, the unemployment rate was 5.1 percent in March, up from an average of 4.6 percent in 2007.
However, Hakim said the state of the economy only has a short-term effect on crime.
David Abrams, a lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School who will be coming to Penn Law next year, said the recent rise in theft on Penn's campus should probably not be attributed solely to a weak economy.
"I would not draw that conclusion from one semester," he said, because the "measures of downturn in economy have not been all that severe."
Erwin Blackstone, also an Economics professor at Temple, agreed.
"I tend to doubt that the rise in theft is because of the economy," he said. There are "many causes of crime," he added, saying, "I wouldn't attribute everything to the state of the economy."
In addition to the increase in theft in the Penn Patrol Zone, there have been seven burglaries reported in the past two weeks.
Rush said she doesn't think that these burglaries are related to the state of the economy because, in contrast to thefts, burglaries are not usually committed by first-time offenders.
Regardless of the cause for this increase, Rush said the Penn community can help prevent it by not leaving property unattended.
"We don't want to tempt people who would not usually turn to crime," she said.
