We examine the relationship between neighborhood poverty rates and juvenile criminal behavior using data from a unique randomized housing-mobility experiment. We find that providing families with the opportunity to move from high- to low-poverty neighborhoods has substantial effects on the...

Understanding whether criminal behavior is contagious is important for law enforcement and for policies that affect how people are sorted across social settings. We test the hypothesis that criminal behavior is contagious by using data from the Moving to Opportunity (MTO) randomized...

One of the most striking features of crime in America is its disproportionate concentration in disadvantaged, racially segregated communities, which has long raised concern that segregation itself may contribute to criminal behavior. Yet little is known about whether government efforts to reduce...