Building Criminal Capital behind Bars: Peer Effects in Juvenile Corrections

Patrick Bayer, Randi Hjalmarsson and David Pozen

No 12932, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: This paper analyzes the influence that juvenile offenders serving time in the same correctional facility have on each other's subsequent criminal behavior. The analysis is based on data on over 8,000 individuals serving time in 169 juvenile correctional facilities during a two-year period in Florida. These data provide a complete record of past crimes, facility assignments, and arrests and adjudications in the year following release for each individual. To control for the non-random assignment to facilities, we include facility and facility-by-prior offense fixed effects, thereby estimating peer effects using only within-facility variation over time. We find strong evidence of peer effects for burglary, petty larceny, felony and misdemeanor drug offenses, aggravated assault, and felony sex offenses; the influence of peers primarily affects individuals who already have some experience in a particular crime category. We also find evidence that the predominant types of peer effects differ in residential versus non-residential facilities; effects in the latter are consistent with network formation among youth serving time close to home.

JEL-codes: H0 H23 J0 J24 K0 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-law, nep-pbe, nep-soc and nep-ure
Note: CH ED LE LS PE
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (54)

Published as Patrick Bayer & Randi Hjalmarsson & David Pozen, 2009. "Building Criminal Capital behind Bars: Peer Effects in Juvenile Corrections-super-," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 124(1), pages 105-147, February.

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Journal Article: Building Criminal Capital behind Bars: Peer Effects in Juvenile Corrections (2009)
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