Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Air Pollutions Impact On Violence During The Commission Of A Crime, Erik Cruz

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Recent research links exposure to air pollution with elevated violent crime rates, despite there being no strong theoretical rationale for why air pollution would influence an individual’s decision to commit a crime. In contrast to prior research that used the violent crime rate as a proxy measure for aggressive behavior, this study employs the probability of a victim being physically injured during the commission of the crime to better quantify the degree of aggressive behavior exhibited by an offender. Results generated in a multilevel analysis of data drawn from 109 U.S. cities show that while carbon monoxide has little effect …