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The Effects of Adult Entertainment Establishments on Sex Crime: Evidence from New York City

Author

Listed:
  • Riccardo Ciacci

    (Universidad Pontificia Comillas)

  • María Micaela María

    (Princeton University)

Abstract

This paper studies how the presence of adult entertainment establishments affects the incidence of sex crimes, including sexual abuse and rape. We build a high frequency daily and weekly panel that combines the exact location of not-self-reported sex crimes with the day of opening and exact location of adult entertainment establishments in New York City. We find that these businesses decrease sex crime by 13% per police precinct one week after the opening, and have no effect on other types of crimes. The results imply that the reduction is mostly driven by potential sex offenders frequenting these establishments rather than committing crimes. We also rule out the possibility that other mechanisms are driving our results, such as an increase in the number of police officers, a reduction in the number of street prostitutes and a possible reduction in the number of potential victims in areas where these businesses opened. The effects are robust to using alternative measures of sex crimes.

Suggested Citation

  • Riccardo Ciacci & María Micaela María, 2020. "The Effects of Adult Entertainment Establishments on Sex Crime: Evidence from New York City," Working Papers 2020-44, Princeton University. Economics Department..
    • Handle: RePEc:pri:econom:2020-44
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Sex crimes; rape; adult entertainment establishments; substitute services;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J47 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Coercive Labor Markets
    • K14 - Law and Economics - - Basic Areas of Law - - - Criminal Law
    • K42 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law

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