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Violent Crime in the United States of America: A Time-Series Analysis Between 1960–2000

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Abstract

This paper empirically assesses the effects of socio-economic and demographic variables on violent crime in the United States. Using national-level time-series data over the period 1960–2000, an unrestricted vector autoregressive (VAR) model was estimated for overall violent crime, murder, rape and assault. The results indicate that there is no long-run relationship among the examined variables, but significant short-run relationships hold. Imprisonment growth, income inequality, alcohol consumption, and racial composition of the male youth population are shown to influence the short-run behaviour of violent crime.

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  1. Department of Economics, University of Leicester, University Road, LE1 7RH, Leicester, UK

    George Saridakis

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Saridakis, G. Violent Crime in the United States of America: A Time-Series Analysis Between 1960–2000. European Journal of Law and Economics 18, 203–221 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1023/B:EJLE.0000045082.09601.b2

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