Does the Presence of Neighborhood Gang Affect Youth Criminal Behavior?

Uche Eseosa Ekhator-Mobayode () and Seyedsoroosh Azizi ()
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Uche Eseosa Ekhator-Mobayode: University of Pittsburgh at Bradford
Seyedsoroosh Azizi: Purdue University Northwest

Economics Bulletin, 2019, vol. 39, issue 3, 2102-2109

Abstract: Studies show that neighborhood characteristics explain behavior in an important way. However, studies that consider neighborhood effects mostly explore family characteristics and neighborhood socioeconomic status. The objective of this study is to examine the relationship between a social institution in the neighborhood and youth behavior by examining whether the presence of neighborhood gangs affect youth delinquency and substance use. We use data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97) and employ Ordinary Least squares (OLS) and Fixed Effects (FE) specification to estimate the effect of the presence of neighborhood gang on substance use and delinquency. We find that after accounting for individual heterogeneity, the presence of neighborhood gangs in a youth's neighborhood increases the substance use index by 0.2 units but has no statistically significant effect on youth delinquency.

Keywords: Gang; Crime; Youths; Delinquency; Substance Use (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: K1 K4 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019-09-07
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