The Effect of Social Connectedness on Crime: Evidence from the Great Migration

Evan Taylor and Bryan Stuart
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Evan Taylor: University of Chicago

Working Papers from The George Washington University, Institute for International Economic Policy

Abstract: This paper estimates the effect of social connectedness on crime across U.S. cities from 1960- 2009. Migration networks among African Americans from the South generated variation across destinations in the concentration of migrants from the same birth town. Using this novel source of variation, we find that social connectedness considerably reduces murders, robberies, assaults, burglaries, larcenies, and motor vehicle thefts, with a one standard deviation increase in social connectedness reducing murders by 13 percent and motor vehicle thefts by 9 percent. Our results appear to be driven by stronger relationships among older generations reducing crime committed by youth.

Keywords: crime; social connectedness; Great Migration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: K42 N32 R23 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 69 pages
Date: 2017
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem, nep-his, nep-law, nep-mig, nep-soc and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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http://www2.gwu.edu/~iiep/assets/docs/papers/2017WP/StuartIIEP2017-24.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: The Effect of Social Connectedness on Crime: Evidence from the Great Migration (2021)
Working Paper: The Effect of Social Connectedness on Crime: Evidence from the Great Migration (2019)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gwi:wpaper:2017-24

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