Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/43459 
Year of Publication: 
2010
Series/Report no.: 
Nota di Lavoro No. 2010,59
Publisher: 
Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM), Milano
Abstract: 
This paper studies whether conformism behavior affects individual outcomes in crime. We present a social network model of peer effects with ex-ante heterogeneous agents and show how conformism and deterrence affect criminal activities. We then bring the model to the data by using a very detailed dataset of adolescent friendship networks. A novel social network-based empirical strategy allows us to identify peer effects for different types of crimes. We find that conformity plays an important role for all crimes, especially for petty crimes. This suggests that, for juvenile crime, an effective policy should not only be measured by the possible crime reduction it implies but also by the group interactions it engenders.
Subjects: 
Social Networks
Linear-in-means Model
Spatial Autoregressive Model
Social Norms
JEL: 
A14
C21
D85
K42
Z13
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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