Spreading Gangs: Exporting US Criminal Capital to El Salvador

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Sviatschi, Maria Micaela
• 署名单位: National Bureau of Economic Research
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0002-8282
• DOI: 10.1257/aer.20201540
• 发表日期: 2022
• 页码: 1985-2024
• 关键词: organized-crime; economic outcomes; STREET GANGS; immigration; CONSEQUENCES; assimilation; PROTECTION; VIOLENCE; origins; MARKET

摘要

This paper shows how deportation policies can backfire by dis-seminating not only ideas between countries but also criminal networks, spreading gangs, in this case, across El Salvador, and spurring migration back to the United States. In 1996, the US Illegal Immigration Responsibility Act increased the number of criminal deportations. In particular, the members of large Salvadoran gangs developed in Los Angeles were sent back to El Salvador. Using varia-tion in criminal deportations over time and across cohorts, combined with geographical variation in US gangs' location, I find that these deportations led to an increase in homicide rates and gang activity,as well as an increase in gang recruitment and migration of children. (JEL J15, J18, K37, K42, O17)