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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

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Legal Studies

Selected Works

2014

Crime

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Your Friends And Neighbors: Localized Economic Development And Criminal Activity, Matthew Freedman, Emily Owens Mar 2014

Your Friends And Neighbors: Localized Economic Development And Criminal Activity, Matthew Freedman, Emily Owens

Matthew Freedman

We exploit a sudden shock to demand for a subset of low-wage workers generated by the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) program in San Antonio, Texas to identify the effects of localized economic development on crime. We use a difference-in-difference methodology that takes advantage of variation in BRAC’s impact over time and across neighborhoods. We find that appropriative criminal behavior increases in neighborhoods where a fraction of residents experienced increases in earnings. This effect is driven by residents who were unlikely to be BRAC beneficiaries, implying that criminal opportunities are important in explaining patterns of crime.

Forthcoming in the …


Race And Crime In Canada And The Usa, Sharlette A. Kellum Dec 2013

Race And Crime In Canada And The Usa, Sharlette A. Kellum

Dr. Sharlette A. Kellum-Gilbert

The author of this article is black. Who cares? Apparently, millions do. What would happen if the use of racial adjectives becomes extinct? How would it affect the criminal justice statistical classification system? How would the auditors of racial crime statistics categorize their arguments? Racial categories are outdated and a cause for continuous segregation. Many segments of society suffer, because of the persistent, “us vs. we” mind-numbing statistical jargon. Some use racial classifications to heighten their arguments for racial disparities, while others use them to tear down an entire group of people. The word “race” causes some to feel as …