The Effect of Violent Crime on Economic Mobility

• In Event: 251 - Regular Session. The Geography of Social Mobility: Sociological Perspectives

Abstract

Recent evidence has demonstrated substantial geographic variation in the level of upward economic mobility across US states, metropolitan areas, commuting zones, and counties. However, there has been minimal progress made in identifying the key mechanisms that help explain why some urban areas have low rates of upward mobility while others have rates of upward mobility that resemble the most mobile nations in the developed world. In this article we focus attention on one specific dimension of urban areas, the level of violent crime. Using cross-sectional and longitudinal evidence and an array of empirical approaches, we find strong evidence that the level of violent crime in a county has a causal effect on the level of upward economic mobility. We find that a one standard deviation decline in violent crime as experienced during late adolescence increases the expected income rank in adulthood by at least 2 points. Similarly, a one standard deviation decline in the murder rate increases the expected income rank by roughly 1.5 points.

Authors

• Patrick T. Sharkey, New York University

• Gerard Torrats-Espinosa, New York University