IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wbk/wbrwps/9909.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Heat, Crime, and Punishment

Author

Listed:
  • Behrer,Arnold Patrick
  • Bolotnyy,Valentin

Abstract

Using administrative criminal records from Texas, this paper shows how heat affects criminaldefendants, police officers, prosecutors, and judges. It finds that arrests increase by up to 15 percent on hot days,driven by increases in violent crime. There is no evidence that charging-day heat impacts prosecutorial decisions.However, working alone, judges dismiss fewer cases, issue longer prison sentences, and levy higher fines when rulingon hot days. Higher incomes, newer housing, more teamwork, and less accessible weapons may decrease these adverseeffects of heat. Even with adaptation, the paper forecasts that climate change will increase crime and have substantialdistributional consequences.

Suggested Citation

  • Behrer,Arnold Patrick & Bolotnyy,Valentin, 2022. "Heat, Crime, and Punishment," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9909, The World Bank.
    • Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:9909
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/205651643052206856/pdf/Heat-Crime-and-Punishment.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Garg, Teevrat & McCord, Gordon C. & Montfort, Aleister, 2020. "Can Social Protection Reduce Environmental Damages?," IZA Discussion Papers 13247, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Provencher, Ashley & Conway, James M., 2019. "Health effects of family member incarceration in the United States: A meta-analysis and cost study," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 87-99.
    3. E. Somanathan & Rohini Somanathan & Anant Sudarshan & Meenu Tewari, 2021. "The Impact of Temperature on Productivity and Labor Supply: Evidence from Indian Manufacturing," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 129(6), pages 1797-1827.
    4. Heilmann, Kilian & Kahn, Matthew E. & Tang, Cheng Keat, 2021. "The urban crime and heat gradient in high and low poverty areas," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 197(C).
    5. Fletcher, Jason M. & Wolfe, Barbara, 2016. "The importance of family income in the formation and evolution of non-cognitive skills in childhood," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 143-154.
    6. Hausman, Jerry & Hall, Bronwyn H & Griliches, Zvi, 1984. "Econometric Models for Count Data with an Application to the Patents-R&D Relationship," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 52(4), pages 909-938, July.
    7. Anita Mukherjee & Nicholas J. Sanders, 2021. "The Causal Effect of Heat on Violence: Social Implications of Unmitigated Heat Among the Incarcerated," NBER Working Papers 28987, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Park, Jisung & Bangalore, Mook & Hallegatte, Stephane & Sandhoefner, Evan, 2018. "Households and heat stress: estimating the distributional consequences of climate change," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 23(3), pages 349-368, June.
    9. Jiyoon Kim & Ajin Lee & Maya Rossin-Slater, 2021. "What to Expect When It Gets Hotter," American Journal of Health Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 7(3), pages 281-305.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Heilmann, Kilian & Kahn, Matthew E. & Tang, Cheng Keat, 2021. "The urban crime and heat gradient in high and low poverty areas," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 197(C).
    2. Benedikt Janzen, 2022. "Temperature and Mental Health: Evidence from Helpline Calls," Papers 2207.04992, arXiv.org, revised Nov 2022.
    3. Sefa Awaworyi Churchill & Russell Smyth & Trong‐Anh Trinh, 2023. "Crime, Weather and Climate Change in Australia," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 99(324), pages 84-107, March.
    4. Moritz A. Drupp & Ulrike Kornek & Jasper N. Meya & Lutz Sager, 2021. "Inequality and the Environment: The Economics of a Two-Headed Hydra," CESifo Working Paper Series 9447, CESifo.
    5. Park, R. Jisung & Pankratz, Nora & Behrer, A. Patrick, 2021. "Temperature, Workplace Safety, and Labor Market Inequality," IZA Discussion Papers 14560, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Nanda Kaji Budhathoki & Kerstin K. Zander, 2019. "Socio-Economic Impact of and Adaptation to Extreme Heat and Cold of Farmers in the Food Bowl of Nepal," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(9), pages 1-24, May.
    7. Yun Qiu & Jinhua Zhao, 2022. "Adaptation and the distributional effects of heat: Evidence from professional archery competitions," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 88(3), pages 1149-1177, January.
    8. Harriet Brookes Gray & Vis Taraz & Simon D. Halliday, 2021. "The Impacts of Weather Shocks on Employment Outcomes: Evidence from South Africa," Bristol Economics Discussion Papers 21/752, School of Economics, University of Bristol, UK.
    9. Colmer, Jonathan & Doleac, Jennifer, 2023. "Access to Guns in the Heat of the Moment: More Restrictive Gun Laws Mitigate the Effect of Temperature on Violence," IZA Discussion Papers 16247, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Brüderle, Mirjam Anna & Peters, Jörg & Roberts, Gareth, 2022. "Weather and crime: Cautious evidence from South Africa," Ruhr Economic Papers 940, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    11. Garg, Teevrat & McCord, Gordon C. & Montfort, Aleister, 2020. "Can Social Protection Reduce Environmental Damages?," IZA Discussion Papers 13247, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. Bijwaard, G.E. & Franses, Ph.H.B.F., 2006. "Does rounding matter for payment efficiency?," Econometric Institute Research Papers EI 2006-43, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Erasmus School of Economics (ESE), Econometric Institute.
    13. Lederman, Daniel & Saenz, Laura, 2005. "Innovation and development around the world, 1960-2000," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3774, The World Bank.
    14. Symeonidis, George, 2001. "Price Competition, Innovation and Profitability: Theory and UK Evidence," CEPR Discussion Papers 2816, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    15. Verdier Valentin, 2018. "Local Semi-Parametric Efficiency of the Poisson Fixed Effects Estimator," Journal of Econometric Methods, De Gruyter, vol. 7(1), pages 1-10, January.
    16. Iván Fernández-Val & Martin Weidner, 2018. "Fixed Effects Estimation of Large-TPanel Data Models," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 10(1), pages 109-138, August.
    17. de Rassenfosse, Gaétan, 2013. "Do firms face a trade-off between the quantity and the quality of their inventions?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(5), pages 1072-1079.
    18. Zhang, Feng & Jiang, Guohua & Cantwell, John A., 2015. "Subsidiary exploration and the innovative performance of large multinational corporations," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 224-234.
    19. Carolin Kroeger, 2023. "Heat is associated with short-term increases in household food insecurity in 150 countries and this is mediated by income," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 7(10), pages 1777-1786, October.
    20. Daron Acemoglu & Amy Finkelstein, 2008. "Input and Technology Choices in Regulated Industries: Evidence from the Health Care Sector," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 116(5), pages 837-880, October.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:9909. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Roula I. Yazigi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dvewbus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.