Does the Burglar Also Disturb the Neighbor? Crime Spillovers on Individual Well-Being

30 Pages Posted: 19 Mar 2015

See all articles by Daniel Avdic

Daniel Avdic

Uppsala University

Christian Bünnings

University of Paderborn; RWI - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: January 17, 2015

Abstract

Indirect psychological effects induced by crime are likely to contribute significantly to the total costs of crime beyond the financial costs of direct victimization. Using detailed crime statistics for the whole of Germany and linking them to individual-level mental health information from the German Socio-Economic Panel, we analyze whether local crime rates affect the mental health of residents. We estimate that a one standard deviation increase in local violent crime rates significantly decreases individual mental well-being among residents by, on average, one percent. Smaller effects are found for property and total crime rates. Results are insensitive to migration and not isolated to urban areas, but are rather driven by less densely populated regions. In contrast to previous literature on vulnerability to crime, we find that men, more educated and singles react more to variation in violent crime rates in their neighborhoods. One potential explanation could be that those who are more fearful of crime have developed better coping strategies and, hence, react less to changes in crime.

Keywords: C23, I18, K42, R23

JEL Classification: Fear of crime; spillover effect; mental health; vulnerability; neighborhood effects; panel data

Suggested Citation

Avdic, Daniel and Bünnings, Christian, Does the Burglar Also Disturb the Neighbor? Crime Spillovers on Individual Well-Being (January 17, 2015). Ruhr Economic Paper No. 540, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2579740 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2579740

Daniel Avdic

Uppsala University ( email )

No Address Available

Christian Bünnings (Contact Author)

University of Paderborn ( email )

Warburger Str. 100
Paderborn, D-33098
Germany

RWI - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research ( email )

Hohenzollernstraße 1-3
Essen
Germany

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
30
Abstract Views
787
PlumX Metrics