 Small Children, Big Problems: Childbirth and CrimeDiogo Britto, Roberto Hsu Rocha, Paolo Pinotti and Breno Sampaio No 19649, CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research Abstract: We investigate the effect of having a child on parents' criminal behavior using rich administrative data from Brazil. Fathers' criminal activity increases sharply by up to 10\% during the pregnancy period, and by up to 30\% two years after birth, while mothers experience only a transitory decline in criminal activity around childbirth. The effect on fathers lasts for at least six years and can explain at least 5\% of the overall male crime rate. Domestic violence within the family also increases after childbirth. The generalized increase in fathers' crime stands in sharp contrast with previous evidence from developed countries, where childbirth is associated with significant and enduring declines in criminal behavior by both parents. Our findings can be explained by the costs of parenthood and the prevalence of poverty among newly formed Brazilian families. Consistent with this explanation, we provide novel evidence that access to maternity benefits largely offsets the increase in crime by fathers after childbirth. Keywords: Crime; Parenthood (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:19649 Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from Access Statistics for this paper More papers in CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research 33 Great Sutton Street, London EC1V 0DX, UK. |
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