Does Growing Up in a High Crime Neighborhood Affect Youth Criminal Behavior?

2014/05/28 by Anna Piil Damm, Christian Dustmann · 3 citations
Social Sciences · #Crime Patterns and Interventions #Urban, Neighborhood, and Segregation Studies #School Choice and Performance

paper · doi:10.1257/aer.104.6.1806

openalex publication_date 2014/05/28 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/02

Abstract

This paper investigates the effect of early exposure to neighborhood crime on subsequent criminal behavior of youth exploiting a unique natural experiment between 1986 and 1998 when refugee immigrants to Denmark were assigned to neighborhoods quasi-randomly. We find strong evidence that the share of young people convicted for crimes, in particular violent crimes, in the neighborhood increases convictions of male assignees later in life. No such effects are found for other measures of neighborhood crime including the rate of committed crimes. Our findings suggest social interaction as a key channel through which neighborhood crime is linked to individual criminal behavior. (JEL J13, J15, K42, R23, Z13)

Citations

• Identification of Endogenous Social Effects: The Reflection Problem
• Ethnic Enclaves and the Economic Success of Immigrants--Evidence from a Natural Experiment
• Explaining the Gender Gap in Delinquency: Peer Influence and Moral Evaluations of Behavior

Cited by

• Ethnic networks can foster the economic integration of refugees
• Disentangling community-level changes in crime trends during the COVID-19 pandemic in Chicago
• Immigration [wikipedia]

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