Working Paper: NBER ID: w27619
Authors: Monica Deza; Johanna Catherine Maclean; Keisha T. Solomon
Abstract: We estimate the effect of local access to office-based mental healthcare on crime. We leverage variation in the number of mental healthcare offices within a county over the period 1999 to 2014 in a two-way fixed-effects model. We find that increases in the number of mental healthcare offices modestly reduce crime. In particular, ten additional offices in a county reduces crime by 1.7 crimes per 10,000 residents. These findings suggest an unintended benefit from expanding the office-based mental healthcare workforce: reductions in crime.
Keywords: mental healthcare; crime; public health
JEL Codes: I11; I12; K42
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| increases in the number of office-based mental healthcare offices (I11) | reduction in crime rates (K14) |
| increases in the number of office-based mental healthcare offices (I11) | improved treatment uptake (I12) |
| improved treatment uptake (I12) | enhanced mental health outcomes (I15) |
| enhanced mental health outcomes (I15) | decreased crime (K42) |