Weather and Crime—Cautious evidence from South Africa

Jörg Peters, Anna Bruederle and Gareth Roberts

EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, 2022, vol. 3, issue 1, 1-22

Abstract: South Africa has one of the highest crime rates in the world. This paper examines the effect of weather shocks on various types of crime. Using a 12-year panel data set at a monthly resolution on the police ward level, we observe a short-term effect of temperatures on violent crime. Furthermore, we find evidence for the medium-term effect of weather on crime via droughts. Yet, effect sizes are subtle in both cases and we also emphasize often neglected but well-documented limitations to the interpretability of weather data and weather-induced mechanisms. Recognizing these limitations, we conclude with a cautious interpretation of our findings to inform police deployment strategies.

Keywords: South Africa; Weather; Crime; Income shocks (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C33 O55 Q54 R11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/290421/1/P ... eather-and-Crime.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Weather and crime: Cautious evidence from South Africa (2022)
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:zbw:espost:290421

DOI: 10.1093/qopen/qoac033

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters from ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics ().