Do Police Reduce Crime? Estimates Using the Allocation of Police Forces After a Terrorist Attack

Rafael Di Tella and Ernesto Schargrodsky

American Economic Review, 2004, vol. 94, issue 1, 115-133

Abstract: An important challenge in the crime literature is to isolate causal effects of police on crime. Following a terrorist attack on the main Jewish center in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in July 1994, all Jewish institutions received police protection. Thus, this hideous event induced a geographical allocation of police forces that can be presumed exogenous in a crime regression. Using data on the location of car thefts before and after the attack, we find a large deterrent effect of observable police on crime. The effect is local, with no appreciable impact outside the narrow area in which the police are deployed.

Date: 2004
Note: DOI: 10.1257/000282804322970733
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