Decision-makers often rely on earlier actors but fail to correct for their biases. We model and measure two mechanisms: underestimating upstream bias and treating subjective information as ground truth. We link an original survey of 203 North Carolina prosecutors to their 505,787 cases....

Drawing upon extensive literature on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) spillovers, we hypothesize that FDI inflow represents a double-edged sword with respect to crime in host countries. On one hand, FDI can contribute to economic growth and social well-being by infusing capital and knowledge into...

This paper studies the impact of birthright citizenship on youth crime. We leverage a reform which automatically granted birthright citizenship to eligible immigrant children born in Germany after January 1, 2000 and administrative crime data from three federal states. Immigrant youth who...

Gender-based violence (GBV) remains a critical threat to women's safety and equality worldwide, yet the role of climate and environmental stressors in shaping violence against women remains underexplored, particularly in developed countries. This study identifies the causal impact of shortrun...

Gender-based violence (GBV) remains a critical threat to women's safety and equality worldwide, yet the role of climate and environmental stressors in shaping violence against women remains underexplored, particularly in developed countries. This study identifies the causal impact of short-run...

This paper studies the causal impact of female political representation on legislative behavior, social attitudes, and gender-based crime. Using a regression discontinuity design based on close mixed-gender electoral contests, we compare electorates that narrowly elected female versus male...

We study the causal effect of maternal criminal victimization on child health using linked police reports and birth records from Brazil. Focusing on robbery and theft - everyday crimes not involving physical injury - we show that victimization during pregnancy increases low birthweight by 6.9...

We study how incarceration experience shapes preferences for criminal justice policies. In collaboration with a newly opened prison, we conducted a randomized field experiment that o!ered citizens the opportunity to experience up to two days of incarceration, closely replicating the real-life...

Higher temperatures can increase substance abuse and exacerbate its physiological effects on the human body, raising the risk of violent behavior. Using administrative crime records and daily temperatures in the United States between 1991 and 2023, we show that two public policies regulating...

This paper studies how and why anti-Irish sentiment in 19th century England spills over onto jury decisions at London’s Old Bailey Central Criminal Court. We classify the (perceived) ethnicity of courtroom participants according to whether they have distinctly Irish or English surnames based...

We study how incarceration experience shapes preferences for criminal justice policies. In collaboration with a newly opened prison, we conducted a randomized field experiment that offered citizens the opportunity to experience up to two days of incarceration, closely replicating the real-life...

We investigate the long-run relationship between organized crime and corruption using data from 20 Italian regions over 30 years. As Rose-Ackerman and Palifka (2018) argue, corruption and organized crime often go together. Our study contributes to the literature in several ways in terms of...

This paper studies how and why anti-Irish sentiment in 19th century England spills over onto jury decisions at London's Old Bailey Central Criminal Court. We classify the (perceived) ethnicity of courtroom participants according to whether they have distinctly Irish or English surnames based on...

This study explores the gendered impacts of violent crime on economic opportunities in Latin America and the Caribbean. While both men and women experience violent crime, their exposure to violent crime and the consequences they suffer differ. Women are disproportionately affected by intimate...

This paper studies the impact of birthright citizenship on youth crime. We leverage a reform which automatically granted birthright citizenship to eligible immigrant children born in Germany after January 1, 2000 and administrative crime data from three federal states. Immigrant youth who...

This paper studies how and why anti-Irish sentiment in 19th century England spills over onto jury decisions at London’s Old Bailey Central Criminal Court. We classify the (perceived) ethnicity of courtroom participants according to whether they have distinctly Irish or English surnames based...

We evaluate the Education Maintenance Allowance, a large conditional cash transfer scheme that paid low-income teenagers in England to remain in education beyond age 16. Using the staggered national roll-out of the programme and linked administrative data tracking education, earnings, welfare...

This study, grounded in Rational Choice Theory, explores the strategies and decision-making processes of online romance fraud perpetrators in Ghana. Using a qualitative approach, thirteen individuals involved in such fraud were interviewed through purposive and snowball sampling. Data were...

Cryptocurrency fraud represents one of the fastest-growing financial crimes worldwide, yet the psychological mechanisms that enable these scams remain understudied. Drawing on 282 verified victim narratives from California and Wisconsin state crypto scam trackers (2023-2024), this study...

Among white-collar offenders, processes of neutralization appear to play a crucial role in sustaining both their moral self-concept and their social standing and subsequently play a role in commiting violations of the law. This article explores methods for collecting information on the...

Money laundering enables criminal organizations to integrate illicit funds into the legal economy while evading detection, posing significant challenges for regulators and policymakers. We develop a formal framework to examine criminal organizations' choice between two money laundering methods....

The paper aims to investigate the imperialistic status of Economic Theory of Crime. Among economists, ETC is often regarded as a successful case of imperialism toward criminology, but criminologists do not share this perception. Through a documental analysis and literature review, we select two...

Following reunification, anti-foreigner crimes rose sharply in the former GDR. Using countylevel data for the early 1990s, we study if regional access to Western TV, i.e. non-socialist media, prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall had an impact on regional levels of serious antiforeigner crime...

Despite making up a relatively low share of the population, adolescents account for a disproportionately high incidence of registered offenders. An innovative empirical approach finds causal evidence that a reform of citizenship law has a significant impact on reducing youth crime. Birthright...

We study the long-run health effects of illegal toxic waste disposal conducted by organized crime in Italy. We exploit quasi-random variation in historical wind direction around contaminated sites combined with a difference-in-differences design. Using administrative data on cancer deaths...

Two years after the partial legalization of cannabis, this Weekly Report examines current developments in the German cannabis and other illicit drug markets. The analysis is based on police crime statistics, survey data, wastewater data, and price information. The number of recorded cannabis and...

This paper examines how scam compounds, money mules and crypto-assets operate as interdependent elements of contemporary money-laundering chains. It assesses whether existing anti-money laundering (AML) and crypto-asset regulatory frameworks are capable of disrupting these chains holistically,...

After the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, Germany experienced an increase in police-recorded child and juvenile delinquency that attracted considerable public attention. Given the limitations of official crime statistics, the parliament of the state of North Rhine-Westfalia asked the state...

This paper combines ten years of idiosyncratic variation in school closure dates for all secondary schools in England with administrative records of educational and criminal trajectories linked at the individual level to study the impact of the school schedule on the dynamics of youth crime....

Purpose The paper aims to investigate the effect of GDP growth on crime and to test the hypothesis of nonlinearity. Additionally, we estimate the interaction between GDP and income inequality and examine its impact on the relationship between GDP and homicide rates. Design/methodology/approach...

Racial disparities within the criminal justice system continue to be a pressing issue in the U.S. In this paper, we analyze data for almost four million stops by California's fifteen largest law enforcement agencies in 2019, examining the extent to which people of color experience searches,...

Violence is often viewed as an intrinsic feature of illicit markets, driven by competition, disputes, and predation. We argue that the connection between violence and markets is not exclusive to illicit markets and that in the absence of strong institutions these factors exist ubiquitously....

Freedom of speech is central to democracy, but protests that amplify extremist views expose a critical trade-off between civil liberties and public safety. This paper investigates how right-wing demonstrations affect the incidence of hate crimes, focusing on Germany's largest far-right movement...

Among Latin American countries, Peru has one of the highest crime rates, with 9 out of 10 Peruvians reporting feeling unsafe walking the streets at night. This rooted-in-reality feeling of insecurity may harm citizens' mental health. We study the consequences of the Peruvian Safe Neighborhood...

Can lowering barriers to public services reduce domestic violence? Exploiting the introduction of a non-mandatory police reporting policy, I find that it significantly reduces domestic violence cases reported to the police while increasing hospital-reported cases of domestic assault. I further...