7 research outputs found
Homelessness and Crime: Do Your Friends Matter?
This paper investigates the influence of friends on crime, using data I collected among
the homeless. To estimate the causal effects of friends and of the share of criminal friends
on crime, I rely on two instruments. The first is the share of rainy days during one's first
year as homeless: rainfall fosters homeless's concentration in sheltered places and increases the
probability of interactions. The second is the share of inmates released during one's first year as
homeless, which a\ua4ects the supply of criminal friends. I find that one additional friend decreases
the probability of incarceration but criminal friends increases it