Do police reduce crime? Estimates using the allocation of police forces after a terrorist attack

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Di Tella, R; Schargrodsky, E
• 署名单位: Harvard University; Universidad Torcuato Di Tella
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0002-8282
• DOI: 10.1257/000282804322970733
• 发表日期: 2004
• 页码: 115-133
• 关键词: electoral cycles; time-series; deterrence; incapacitation; ENFORCEMENT; earnings; breaks; rates; LAW

摘要

An important challenge in the crime literature is to isolate causal effects of police on crime. Following a terrorist attack on the main Jewish center in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in July 1994, all Jewish institutions received police protection. Thus, this hideous event induced a geographical allocation of police forces that can be presumed exogenous in a crime regression. Using data on the location of car thefts before and after the attack, we find a large deterrent effect of observable police on crime. The effect is local, with no appreciable impact outside the narrow area in which the police are deployed.