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Local access to mental healthcare and crime

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  • Deza, Monica
  • Maclean, Johanna Catherine
  • Solomon, Keisha

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 reduce crime. In particular, ten additional offices in a county reduces crime by 1.6 crimes per 10,000 residents, or 0.4% relative to the sample mean. Adjusting crimes based on their social costs implies larger effect sizes: ten additional offices reduces crime costs per capita by 2.2%. These findings suggest an unintended benefit from expanding the office-based mental healthcare workforce: reductions in crime.

Suggested Citation

  • Deza, Monica & Maclean, Johanna Catherine & Solomon, Keisha, 2022. "Local access to mental healthcare and crime," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:juecon:v:129:y:2022:i:c:s0094119021000929
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jue.2021.103410
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    Cited by:

    1. Messel, Matt & Swensen, Isaac & Urban, Carly, 2023. "The effects of expanding access to mental health services on SS(D)I applications and awards," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    2. Jonathan Colmer & Jennifer L. Doleac, 2023. "Access to Guns in the Heat of the Moment: More Restrictive Gun Laws Mitigate the Effect of Temperature on Violence," CESifo Working Paper Series 10525, CESifo.
    3. Jonathan Colmer & Jennifer L. Doleac, 2023. "Access to guns in the heat of the moment: more restrictive gun laws mitigate the effect of temperature on violence," CEP Discussion Papers dp1934, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    4. Monica Deza & Thanh Lu & Johanna Catherine Maclean, 2022. "Office‐based mental healthcare and juvenile arrests," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(S2), pages 69-91, October.
    5. Lin Lin & Xianhua Zai, 2022. "The role of supply responses in public insurance expansion: evidence from China's New Cooperative Medical Scheme," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2022-025, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    6. Ashley C. Bradford & Johanna Catherine Maclean, 2024. "Evictions and psychiatric treatment," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(1), pages 87-125, January.
    7. Lin, Lin & Zai, Xianhua, 2022. "The Power of Public Insurance With Limited Benefits: Evidence from China's New Cooperative Medical Scheme," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1180, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    8. Colmer, Jonathan Mark & Doleac, Jennifer L., 2023. "Access to guns in the heat of the moment: more restrictive gun laws mitigate the effect of temperature on violence," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 121304, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Mental health; Crime; Healthcare; Spillovers; Workforce;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • J20 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - General

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