Over the past twenty years juvenile violent crime rates have increased tremendously. In light of this disturbing trend, this paper examines whether variation in punishment levels has any impact on juvenile violent crime. To examine this relationship I first establish a behavioral model of juvenile crime, from which point I introduce an empirical model and use available data to estimate this mod...

This paper examines the relationship between income equality and crime using U.S. statewide panel data for the years 1981 to 1999. After controlling for demographics and the rates of poverty and unemployment, I find a robust negative relationship between income inequality and the violent and property crime rates. I conclude that rising income inequality during those two decades did not lead to ...

In the 1990s, while there was a large decline in property-related crime along the U.S.Mexico border, violent crime rates began to converge to the national average. At the same time, legal and illegal immigration from Mexico surged and border enforcement rose to unprecedented levels. In this paper, we investigate the relationship between border county crime rates, immigration and enforcement sin...

Indirect psychological effects induced by crime are likely to contribute significantly to the total costs of crime beyond the financial costs of direct victimization. Using detailed crime statistics for the whole of Germany and linking them to individual-level mental health information from the German Socio-Economic Panel, we analyze whether local crime rates affect the mental health of residen...

Indirect psychological eff ects induced by crime are likely to contribute signifi cantly to the total costs of crime beyond the fi nancial costs of direct victimization. Using detailed crime statistics for the whole of Germany and linking them to individual-level mental health information from the German Socio-Economic Panel, we analyze whether local crime rates aff ect the mental health of res...

Relativities recently undertaken by the Commonwealth Grants Commission (CGC), one area which attracted a considerable amount of discussion was the perceived effects of "urbanisation" on both the higher usage and the higher costs of the provision of law and order services in urban areas. The Commission had recognised certain supposed effects of population concentration and urban size on police w...

In the 1990s, while there was a large decline in property-related crime along the U.S.Mexico border, violent crime rates began to converge to the national average. At the same time, legal and illegal immigration from Mexico surged and border enforcement rose to unprecedented levels. In this paper, we investigate the relationship between border county crime rates, immigration and enforcement sin...

Building on prior macrosocial-crime research that sought to explain either total crime rates or male rates, this study links female offending rates to structural characteristics of US. cities. Specifically, we go beyond previous research by: (1) gender disaggregating the Uniform Crime Report (UCR) index-crime rates (homicide, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny-theft) across U.S. cit...

This paper extends the Pissarides (2000) model of the labor market to include crime and punishment à la Becker (1968). All workers, irrespective of their labor force status can commit crimes and the employment contract is determined optimally. The model is used to study, analytically and quantitatively, the effects of various labor market and crime policies. For instance, a more generous unempl...