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Local Access to Mental Healthcare and Crime

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  • Monica Deza
  • Johanna Catherine Maclean
  • Keisha T. Solomon

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 modestly reduce crime. In particular, ten additional offices in a county reduces crime by 1.7 crimes per 10,000 residents. These findings suggest an unintended benefit from expanding the office-based mental healthcare workforce: reductions in crime.

Suggested Citation

  • Monica Deza & Johanna Catherine Maclean & Keisha T. Solomon, 2020. "Local Access to Mental Healthcare and Crime," NBER Working Papers 27619, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:27619
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    1. Bhuller, Manudeep & Khoury, Laura & Løken, Katrine V., 2021. "Prison, Mental Health and Family Spillovers," Discussion Paper Series in Economics 19/2021, Norwegian School of Economics, Department of Economics.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I1 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health
    • I11 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Analysis of Health Care Markets
    • K42 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law

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