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Broadband Internet: An Information Superhighway to Sex Crime?

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  • Manudeep Bhuller
  • Tarjei Havnes
  • Edwin Leuven
  • Magne Mogstad

Abstract

Does internet use trigger sex crime? We use unique Norwegian data on crime and internet adoption to shed light on this question. A public program with limited funding rolled out broadband access points in 2000--2008, and provides plausibly exogenous variation in internet use. Our instrumental variables estimates show that internet use is associated with a substantial increase in both reports, charges and convictions of rape and other sex crimes. We present a conceptual framework that highlights three mechanisms for how internet use may affect reported sex crime, namely a reporting effect, a matching effect on potential offenders and victims, and a direct effect on sex crime propensity. To investigate the importance of these mechanisms, we use data on individual reporting behaviour, police investigations, and criminal charges and convictions. None of the analyses we perform suggest that the positive relationship between internet use and sex crime is driven by changes in reporting behaviour. Our findings suggest that the direct effect on sex crime propensity is positive and non-negligible, possibly as a result of increased consumption of pornography. Copyright 2013, Oxford University Press.

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File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/restud/rdt013
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Article provided by Oxford University Press in its journal Review of Economic Studies.

Volume (Year): 80 (2013)
Issue (Month): 4 ()
Pages: 1237-1266

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Handle: RePEc:oup:restud:v:80:y:2013:i:4:p:1237-1266
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Find related papers by JEL classification:
  • K42 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law
  • H40 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - General
  • L96 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - Telecommunications
  • C26 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Instrumental Variables (IV) Estimation

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  1. Choi, Changkyu, 2003. "Does the Internet stimulate inward foreign direct investment?," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 25(4), pages 319-326, June.
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Blog mentions

As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
  1. The internet increases sex crime. Who’da thunk?
    by Nicholas Gruen in Club Troppo on 2011-05-15 08:15:52
Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
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Cited by:

  1. D'Este, Rocco, 2014. "The Effect of Stolen Goods Markets on Crime: Evidence from a Quasi - Natural Experiment," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 1040, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
  2. Liang, Che-Yuan & Nordin, Mattias, 2012. "The Internet, News Consumption, and Political Attitudes," Working Paper Series, Center for Fiscal Studies 2012:10, Uppsala University, Department of Economics.
  3. Gabriel Ahlfeldt & Pantelis Koutroumpis & Tommaso Valletti, 2015. "Speed 2.0 - Evaluating Access to Universal Digital Highways," CESifo Working Paper Series 5186, CESifo Group Munich.
  4. Abdallah Salami & Robert Seamans, 2014. "The Effect of the Internet on Newspaper Readability," Working Papers 14-13, NET Institute.
  5. Stefan Bauernschuster & Oliver Falck & Ludger Woessmann, 2011. "Surfing Alone? The Internet and Social Capital: Evidence from an Unforeseeable Technological Mistake," CESifo Working Paper Series 3469, CESifo Group Munich.
  6. Owsiński, Jan W. & Pielak, Aneta M. & Sęp, Krzysztof, 2013. "Smartness, culture and local authority ICT awareness: an empirical enquiry for a province in Poland," Studies in Agricultural Economics, Research Institute for Agricultural Economics, vol. 115(2), June.
  7. Jason Chan & Anindya Ghose & Robert Seamans, 2013. "The Internet and Hate Crime: Offline Spillovers from Online Access," Working Papers 13-02, NET Institute.

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