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Commuting for crime

Author

Listed:
  • Kirchmaier, Thomas
  • Langella, Monica
  • Manning, Alan

Abstract

People care about crime, with the spatial distribution of both actual and perceived crime affecting the amenities from living in different areas and residential decisions. The literature finds that crime tends to happen close to the offender’s residence but does not clearly establish whether this is because the location of likely offenders and crime opportunities are close to each other or whether there is a high commuting cost for criminals. We use a rich administrative dataset from one of the biggest UK police forces to disentangle these two hypotheses, providing an estimate of the cost of distance and how local socio-economic characteristics affect both crimes that are committed and the offenders’ location. We find that the cost of distance is very high and has a great deterrence effect. We also propose a procedure for controlling for the selection bias induced by the fact that offenders’ location is only known when they are caught.

Suggested Citation

  • Kirchmaier, Thomas & Langella, Monica & Manning, Alan, 2021. "Commuting for crime," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 114412, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:114412
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    File URL: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/114412/
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alan Manning & Barbara Petrongolo, 2017. "How Local Are Labor Markets? Evidence from a Spatial Job Search Model," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(10), pages 2877-2907, October.
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    3. Joseph Deutsch & Gil S. Epstein, 1998. "Changing a Decision Taken under Uncertainty: The Case of the Criminal's Location Choice," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 35(8), pages 1335-1343, July.
    4. Eric D. Gould & Bruce A. Weinberg & David B. Mustard, 2002. "Crime Rates And Local Labor Market Opportunities In The United States: 1979-1997," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 84(1), pages 45-61, February.
    5. da Matta, Rafael Almeida & Andrade, Mônica Viegas, 2011. "A model of local crime displacement," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 30-36, March.
    6. Aitkin, Murray & Francis, Brian, 1992. "Fitting the multinomial logit model with continuous covariates in GLIM," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 89-97, June.
    7. Gordon B. Dahl, 2002. "Mobility and the Return to Education: Testing a Roy Model with Multiple Markets," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 70(6), pages 2367-2420, November.
    8. Viscusi, W Kip, 1986. "The Risks and Rewards of Criminal Activity: A Comprehensive Test of Criminal Deterrence," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 4(3), pages 317-340, July.
    9. Deutsch, Joseph & Hakim, Simon & Weinblatt, J., 1987. "A micro model of the criminal's location choice," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 198-208, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    crime; commuting;

    JEL classification:

    • K42 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law

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