Theses and Dissertations from UMD
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Item WHAT'S RACE GOT TO DO WITH IT?: EXAMINING THE IMPACT OF RACE ON THE IMMIGRATION-CRIME RELATIONSHIP(2024) Henry, Diomand; Vélez, Maria B; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Existing literature on immigration and crime suggests a negative correlation betweenimmigration and neighborhood crime rates. However, the influence of race on this relationship has been understudied. This thesis addresses this gap by examining the immigration-crime relationship at the neighborhood level with a focus on the racial background of the foreign born population and the dominant racial composition of the community. Utilizing data from the National Neighborhood Crime Study II (NNCS2) and the 2008-2012 American Community Survey, this study incorporates race in three ways: categorizing immigrants by racial group (Black, White, Latino, and Asian), analyzing the impact of immigration across distinct racial neighborhoods (Black, White, Latino, and Multi-Ethnic), and examining the interaction between the racial groups of immigrants and neighborhood types on crime rates. The findings reveal that: (1) consistent with prior literature, immigration is associated with lower neighborhood crime rates; (2) the strength of this relationship varies across different racial backgrounds of immigrants and (3) the relationship differs across varying levels of racial composition at the neighborhood level, indicating that race significantly influences the immigration-crime dynamic. Overall, the results underscore the critical importance of incorporating race into discussions about immigration and crime.Item Essays on the Economics of Crime, Gender, and Health(2023) Ramirez Pierce, Elena; Goldberg, Jessica; Economics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)In this dissertation I study the impacts of large government programs on crime and health outcomes. I also run an online experiment about the use of professional titles to elicit perceptions of experts cited in major news outlets and to test whether these perceptions vary across genders. In the first chapter, I examine the effects of large changes in cash availability on crime. South Africa has a large social safety net comprised of numerous cash transfer programs, called social grants, that are paid on a monthly basis. Prior to late 2018, these social grants were paid mostly in cash at grant disbursement locations called paypoints. Using a differences-in-differences (DiD) strategy, I analyze the effects of the temporary increase in cash availability on crime by comparing crimes on social grant payment dates in small geographical areas, police precincts, between areas with differing numbers of cash disbursement locations. The results suggest a small decrease in crime the day prior to social grant payments, and small increases the day of payments or the day after payments, depending on the empirical specification. These results are consistent with perpetrators potentially delaying their labor supply of crime until the widely publicized cash grant payment days, an anticipation effect, and increasing their labor supply of crime on or after payment days consistent with a loot effect, resulting from increased cash and purchased goods availability. Chapter two investigates whether there exists a credibility penalty for female experts compared to male experts when major news outlets forgo the use of professional titles, such as ``Dr." that serve as an information signal on the level of their training. Given the extensive literature on gender and racial bias in media reporting and professional and academic environments, the practice of abstaining from the use of professional titles may reinforce and even exacerbate these biases. In this co-authored analysis, we test for differential effects by conducting an online experiment that presented survey respondents with news articles holding constant content, but varying the gender and title of the cited experts and asked them to rate the expert's credibility. Our design enables between-subject and within-subject analysis. While we are able to detect a positive credibility effect of using professional titles, we are unable to distinguish a differential credibility impact across gender. Finally, in chapter three I estimate the effects of a large-scale national physician provision program in Brazil on birth outcomes. Given the risk to mothers of injury and disease associated with childbirth that may affect the health of the newborn, as well as the myriad of complications that may arise that could threaten the health of the fetus, increasing access to and quality of medical care may have substantial effects on birth outcomes. The Mais Medicos Program (PMM) focused on equalizing physicians per capita as well as generally increasing the number of physicians across the country. Beginning in late 2013 and an executive branch initiative, the program placed almost 20,000 physicians by 2016, predominantly from Cuba, throughout the country. Using vital statistics data of the universe of births in Brazil from 2006 to 2017, I estimate the effect of increasing the supply of primary care physicians on birth weight using both a differences-in-differences and an instrumental variables approach. I find that PMM resulted in higher average birth weight for children throughout Brazil. However, I find no improvement on the incidence of low birth weight or any weight effects for those living in rural parts of the country. Hence, these results imply PMM did not affect the most vulnerable pregnancies.Item THE EFFECT OF COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTERS ON HEALTH CARE ACCESS, CRIME, AND INTERACTIONS WITH THE MEDICAID PROGRAM(2022) Marthey, Daniel J; Boudreaux, Michel; Health Services Administration; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Health centers are community-based clinics that provide services to medically underserved populations. They serve nearly 30 million adults nationwide and more than 90% of patients come from households earning below 200% of the federal poverty level. To date, we know very little about the impact of health centers on measures of social wellbeing.This dissertation estimates the causal impact of the health centers using the staggered expansion of health centers between 2006 and 2020 and advancements in causal inference methods that allow for unbiased identification of treatment effects in the presence of variation in treatment timing and treatment effect heterogeneity. I use the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Provider of Services file to identify the introduction of health centers over time. Measures of primary care access come from the Dartmouth Atlas and the FBI’s UCR Offenses Known and Clearances by Arrest (2005-2016) files are used to measure agency and county level crime rates. Area-by-year covariates are compiled from several sources. The empirical approach uses staggered difference-in-differences where treatment is defined as the year the first health center receives certification in a county-year. Major findings suggest health centers increase annual visits with a primary care clinician by 4.5% within 7 years after certification among Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries. I find health centers reduce the total crime rate by 7% over the period. Results are robust to several alternative specifications. While results on Medicaid interactions are inconclusive, they suggest declines in crime are largest in counties that experienced a health center opening and Medicaid expansion. My dissertation adds to the literature on the impacts of the Health Center Program’s main objective—increasing access to care. In addition, my findings broaden the literature related to health access programs and crime. The Health Center Program has grown considerably in size and scope since inception, and it is a centerpiece of many policy approaches to reform the US health care system. Findings from my dissertation have important policy implications for health, criminal justice, and social justice reforms.Item Microdynamics of Illegitimacy and Complex Urban Violence in Medellin, Colombia(2010) Lamb, Robert Dale; Steinbruner, John D; Public Policy; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)For most of the past 25 years, Medellin, Colombia, has been an extreme case of complex, urban violence, involving not just drug cartels and state security forces, but also street gangs, urban guerrillas, community militias, paramilitaries, and other nonstate armed actors who have controlled micro-territories in the city's densely populated slums in ever-shifting alliances. Before 2002, Medellin's homicide rate was among the highest in the world, but after the guerrillas and militias were defeated in 2003, a major paramilitary alliance disarmed and a period of peace known as the "Medellin Miracle" began. Policy makers facing complex violence elsewhere were interested in finding out how that had happened so quickly. The research presented here is a case study of violence in Medellin over five periods since 1984 and at two levels of analysis: the city as a whole, and a sector called Caicedo La Sierra. The objectives were to describe and explain the patterns of violence, and determine whether legitimacy played any role, as the literature on social stability suggested it might. Multilevel, multidimensional frameworks for violence and legitimacy were developed to organize data collection and analysis. The study found that most decreases in violence at all levels of analysis were explained by increases in territorial control. Increases in collective (organized) violence resulted from a process of "illegitimation," in which an intolerably unpredictable living environment sparked internal opposition to local rulers and raised the costs of territorial control, increasing their vulnerability to rivals. As this violence weakened social order and the rule of law, interpersonal-communal (unorganized) violence increased. Over time, the "true believers" in armed political and social movements became marginalized or corrupted; most organized violence today is motivated by money. These findings imply that state actors, facing resurgent violence, can keep their tenuous control over the hillside slums (and other "ungoverned" areas) if they can avoid illegitimizing themselves. Their priority, therefore, should be to establish a tolerable, predictable daily living environment for local residents and businesses: other anti-violence programs will fail without strong, permanent, and respectful governance structures.Item The Effect of Hurricanes on Burglary in North Carolina Counties, 1999-2003.(2008-07-26) Beckley, Amber; Dugan, Laura; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Hurricanes and tropical storms cause much harm and extensive damage. Their effect on crime is interesting as their precise timing is unpredictable. Yet, there is a limited body of research on this effect. This thesis examines the effect of hurricanes on burglary in North Carolina counties for a five year period between January 1999 and December 2003. It considers both routine activity theory and social disorganization theory to explain how crime may change after a disaster. The results indicate that some social disorganization components interact with a hurricane to produce an effect on burglary. The routine activity proxies used were not significant, but this could have been the result of numerous limitations. Future directions for research include improving and expanding data sources and incorporating alternate theories.Item Essays on the impact of social interactions on economic outcomes(2007-06-03) Perez Rojas, Nathalia; Kranton, Rachel; Economics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation consists of two essays, which address the question of how social interactions shape economic outcomes. The first essay examines crime and criminal networks. The second one studies immigration, assimilation, and ethnic enclaves. The first essay offers a formal model of crime. Criminals often do not act alone. Rather, they form networks of collaboration. How does law enforcement affect criminal activity and structure of those networks? Using a network game, I show that increased enforcement actually can lead to sparse networks and thereby to an increase in criminal activity. When criminal activity requires a certain degree of specialization, criminals will form sparse networks, which generate the highest level of crime and are the hardest to disrupt. I also show that heavy surveillance and large fines do not deter crime for these networks. The second essay examines the impact that residential location decisions have on economic outcomes of immigrants. About two thirds of the immigrants that arrived to the United States between 1997 and 2006 settled in six States only. Using a simultaneous-move game on residential choices I show that when all immigrants are unskilled they cluster in an enclave and earn very low wages, although they would be better off assimilating. Hence the enclave is `trap'. Introducing skill heterogeneity among immigrants reverses the result: the enclave equilibrium becomes socially preferred to assimilation.Item How Incarceration Affects Juveniles: A Focus on the Changes in Frequency and Prevalence of Criminal Activity(2005-05-27) Giguere, Rachelle Marie; Bushway, Shawn D; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)There has been a longstanding debate over the effectiveness of correctional institutions. Some argue that incarceration deters offenders while others argue that the experience of being incarcerated causes individuals to continue in their life of crime. Resolving this debate is of particular importance for young individuals when there is a national push for the increased treatment of youth as adults. Using NLSY panel data, this study focuses on how the criminal offending of a sample of incarcerated youth changes over time in relation to incarceration while including a control group of youth who are not incarcerated but are similar in demographics. Close attention is paid to overcome past problems with validity. The findings suggest that incarceration does little to stop criminal paths or future contacts with the criminal justice system, but perhaps may even have harmful effects on youth, particularly drug sellers, over the short term.