Victims of Crime" with Mikkel Mertz

Abstract:

We analyze who falls victim of crime, and the economic consequences of criminal victimization for victims and their families in the short and long run using rare administrative data on the population of reported victims in Denmark. We show that victims of violent crimes are likely to grow up in disadvantaged environments and to be of low socioeconomic status themselves. Victims of property crime are, if anything, positively selected. Furthermore, we show that while property crime victimization has limited effect on the labor market outcomes of victims, violent crime victimization has long-lasting negative effects. Moreover, these effects are larger and far more persistent for female victims. The gender difference is not explained by differences in the type of violent crimes that men and women fall victim of, nor by differences in other characteristics, such as educational attainment.