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Thieves, Thugs and Neighborhood Poverty

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Submitted By levry1987
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Thieves, Thugs, and Neighborhood Poverty
David Bjerk Robert Day School of Economics and Finance Claremont McKenna College 500 East Ninth Street, Claremont CA 91711 Ph: 909-607-4471 david.bjerk@cmc.edu April 25, 2010

Abstract This paper develops a model of crime analyzing how such behavior is associated with individual and neighborhood poverty. The model shows that even under relatively minimal assumptions, a connection between individual poverty and both property and violent crimes will arise, and moreover, "neighborhood" e¤ects can develop, but will di¤er substantially in nature across crime types. A key implication is that greater economic segregation in a city should have no e¤ect or a negative e¤ect on property crime, but a positive e¤ect on violent crime. Using IV methods, I show this implication to be consistent with the empirical evidence. Keywords: Crime; Segregation; Neighborhood E¤ects; Instrumental Variables; Poverty.

1

“I don’ care if I got money, or work Monday through Friday. I just go shoot a t motherf*@#er on the weekends. If that’ what need to be done to keep my hood s and my young ones around here safe, then that’ what to get done” (quoted by s Landesman, 2007).

1

Introduction

High rates of crime and violence in poor neighborhoods have been described by numerous scholars and journalists (Wilson, 1987; Krivo and Peterson, 1996; Kotlowitz, 1991; Patterson, 1991; Messner and Tardi¤, 1986, to name just a few). However, the quote above from a man residing in a high-poverty housing project in south Los Angeles emphasizes that not only is crime a large part of life in high-poverty neighborhoods, but also that violent crimes may often serve a quite di¤erent purpose than basic property crime. Namely, while the motivation for basic property crimes is generally purely monetary, becoming involved in violent crime may have a defensive

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