The Effect of Social Connectedness on Crime: Evidence from the Great Migration
March 2021
Bryan A. Stuart, George Washington University
Evan J. Taylor University of Arizona
Abstract: This paper estimates the effect of social connectedness on crime across U.S. cities from 1970 to 2009. Migration networks among African Americans from the South generated variation across destinations in the concentration of migrants from the same birth town. Using this novel source of variation, we find that social connectedness considerably reduces murders, rapes, robberies, assaults, burglaries, and motor vehicle thefts, with a 1 standard deviation increase in social connectedness reducing murders by 21% and motor vehicle thefts by 20%. Social connectedness especially reduces murders of adolescents and young adults committed during gang and drug activity
JEL Codes: K42, N32, R23, Z13
Key Words: crime, social connectedness, Great Migration
