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Do Police Reduce Crime? Estimates Using the Allocation of Police Forces After a Terrorist Attack

Bibliographic Data

ID5782079
AuthorsRafael Di Tella (Harvard Business School, Boston, MA 02163.), Ernesto Schargrodsky (0000-0002-4902-5044, Universidad Torcuato Di Tella, Miñones 2177, (C1428ATG) Buenos Aires, Argentina.)
Year2004
Volume94
Issue1
Pages115-133
Publication date2004-02-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Economic Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0002-8282 • E-ISSN: 1944-7981
PublisherAmerican Economic Association (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1257/000282804322970733
OpenAlexW2104814418
LanguageEN
Citations received169
References cited25

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

Criminology · Economics · Geography · Judaism · Political science · Sociology · Terrorism · Violent crime · Crime Patterns and Interventions · Crime, Illicit Activities, and Governance · Law · Wildlife Conservation and Criminology Analyses

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Unique citing works169
Citations per year7,04
Citation span2002 - 2026 (25)
Citation velocitycurrent
Highly citedYes
Citation typesNeutral: 167
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