Unhappiness and Crime: Evidence from South Africa

The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) from University of Warwick, Department of Economics

Abstract: This paper is the first of its kind to study quality of life responses of crime victims. Using cross-sectional data from the OHS97 survey of South Africa, we show that victims report significantly lower well-being than the non-victims, ceteris paribus. The calculated ‘compensating variation’ suggests that it would take, on average, an extra $10,000 per month to offset the psychological costs of crime. Happiness is lower for nonvictimized respondents currently living in higher crime areas. However, we find a strong evidence for females that criminal victimization hurts, but hurts less if the crime rate on our reference group is high.

Keywords: Happiness; Quality of Life; Crime; Stigma; South Africa (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D60 I31 J10 O10 O55 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 36 pages
Date: 2003
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Unhappiness and Crime: Evidence from South Africa (2005)
Working Paper: Unhappiness and Crime: Evidence from South Africa (2004)
Working Paper: Unhappiness and Crime: Evidence from South Africa (2003)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wrk:warwec:685

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