The Impact of Violent Crime on Obesity

Lisa Stolzenberg, Stewart J. D’Alessio and Jamie L. Flexon
Additional contact information
Lisa Stolzenberg: Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida International University, Miami, FL 33199, USA
Stewart J. D’Alessio: Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida International University, Miami, FL 33199, USA
Jamie L. Flexon: Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida International University, Miami, FL 33199, USA

Social Sciences, 2019, vol. 8, issue 12, 1-12

Abstract: Dwelling in a violence-plagued neighborhood may amplify obesity by engendering psychological distress or by cultivating a sedentary, homebound lifestyle. This relationship is speculated to be especially relevant for black and Hispanic citizens because they are much more likely than whites to live in violence-beleaguered neighborhoods. Results from two multilevel analyses of 12,645 residents living in 34 New York City neighborhoods show that, while the violent crime rate does not have a direct effect on obesity, it does condition the relationships between race, ethnicity, and obesity. As the violent crime rate rises in a neighborhood, the probability of both a black and Hispanic resident being obese increases, controlling for both individual and neighborhood factors. The BMI of black and Hispanic residents is also higher in neighborhoods beset by violence. These findings suggest that violent crime may be a salient but unappreciated factor in explaining both racial and ethnic differences in obesity.

Keywords: obesity; race; ethnicity; violent crime; multilevel analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A B N P Y80 Z00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/8/12/329/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/8/12/329/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:8:y:2019:i:12:p:329-:d:296049

Access Statistics for this article

Social Sciences is currently edited by Ms. Yvonne Chu

More articles in Social Sciences from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().