Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP7565
Authors: Eleonora Patacchini; Yves Zenou
Abstract: This paper studies whether conformism behavior affects individual outcomes in crime. We present a social network model of peer effects with ex-ante heterogeneous agents and show how conformism and deterrence affect criminal activities. We then bring the model to the data by using a very detailed dataset of adolescent friendship networks. A novel social network-based empirical strategy allows us to identify peer effects for different types of crimes. We find that conformity plays an important role for all crimes, especially for petty crimes. This suggests that, for juvenile crime, an effective policy should not only be measured by the possible crime reduction it implies but also by the group interactions it engenders.
Keywords: linear-in-means model; social networks; social norms; spatial autoregressive model
JEL Codes: A14; C21; D85; K42; Z13
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Conformity (C92) | Criminal behavior (K42) |
| Average criminal activity of reference group (K42) | Criminal behavior (K42) |
| Deterrence mechanisms (K42) | Crime levels (K42) |
| Social norm influenced by peer interactions (C92) | Individual criminal behavior (K42) |
| Crime effort of individuals (K42) | Crime effort of reference group (K42) |