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Guns, Drugs and Juvenile Crime: Evidence from a Panel of Siblings and Twins

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Author Info
Mocan, H. Naci (University of Colorado at Denver and NBER)
Tekin, Erdal () (Georgia State University, NBER and IZA Bonn)

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Abstract

Using a nationally-representative panel data set of U.S. high school students (AddHealth data) that contains a relatively large sample of siblings and twins, the paper investigates the impacts of gun availability at home and individual drug use on robbery, burglary, theft and damaging property for juveniles. Using a variety of fixed-effects models that exploit variations over time and between siblings and twins, the results show that gun availability at home increases the propensity to commit crime by about two percentage points for juveniles but has no impact on damaging property. The results indicate that it is unlikely that gun availability is merely a measure of the unobserved home environment because gun availability does not influence other risky or bad behaviors of juveniles such as smoking, drinking and fighting, being expelled from school, lying, and having sex. No support is found for the hypothesis that gun availability decreases the propensity for being victimized. In fact, the results show that having access to guns increases the probability of being cut or stabbed by someone and of someone pulling a knife or gun on the juvenile. Estimates obtained from models that exploit variations over time and between siblings and twins indicate that drug use has a significant impact on the propensity to commit crime. We find that the median impact of cocaine use on the propensity to commit various types of crimes is 11 percentage points. The impact of using inhalants or other drugs is an increase in the propensity to commit crime by 7 and 6 percentage points, respectively.

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Publisher Info
Paper provided by Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in its series IZA Discussion Papers with number 932.

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Length: 56 pages
Date of creation: Nov 2003
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Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp932

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Related research
Keywords: crime juvenile twins guns drugs

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
H0 - Public Economics - - General
K4 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior
I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Production

This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
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    Other versions:
  2. Marvell, Thomas B, 2001. "The Impact of Banning Juvenile Gun Possession," Journal of Law & Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 44(2), pages 691-713, October.
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    Other versions:
  4. H. Naci Mocan & Daniel I. Rees, 2005. "Economic Conditions, Deterrence and Juvenile Crime: Evidence from Micro Data," American Law and Economics Review, Oxford University Press, vol. 7(2), pages 319-349. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  5. Michael Grossman & Robert Kaestner & Sara Markowitz, 2002. "Get High and Get Stupid: The Effect of Alcohol and Marijuana Use on Teen Sexual Behavior," NBER Working Papers 9216, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  6. Raphael, Steven & Winter-Ember, Rudolf, 2001. "Identifying the Effect of Unemployment on Crime," Journal of Law & Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 44(1), pages 259-83, April.
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Full references

Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Naci Mocan & Erdal Tekin, 2006. "Ugly Criminals," NBER Working Papers 12019, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
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