The article documents the challenges that confront the large American cities in past years. This is so because crime is one of the significant challenges that large cities in America are experiencing. For instance, the violent crime rate in America cities in 1993 was over 500000, which was four times higher than the cities with a population below 50,000 and seven times more than in rural places. This indicates the level of crime in big cities is more relevant given that both the level of victims safeguard and per capita expenditures on police are much greater in this city. The research indicates that the average crime expenses per household in large cities are over $1000 per year.
The article also evaluates the association between crime and urban flight. The anecdotal indicate that the increasing crime rate in cities such as Detroit drove the people in this city to the suburbs (Cullen & Levitt, 2013). However, there is little formal analysis to back up this information. Similarly, several researches have incorporated the crime level as an explanatory variable in establishing city population, but the role of crime has mainly not been the main area of focus. The studies indicate that economic theory does not anticipate a powerful association between the increasing crime and urban flight. For instance, in case the costs of the crime are completely capitalized into property values, then unforeseen increase in crime can inflict costs on property holders, but cannot lead to depopulation.
Despite having complete capitalization, some population decrease might be anticipated because lower housing costs can cause households to demand more housing per individual. The increase in crime can lead to urban flight in case there are fixed costs of maintenance on housing. Therefore, the crime related decrease in values might cause some housing units to decline below a relevant level, which lead to abandonment. In additional, increasing rate of crime will cause city depopulation if disamenities are not completely capitalized.
Therefore, the outcome of the research indicates that there is a powerful, consistent association between changes in crime rate and urban flight. Despite the time scale of the observations, the level of aggregation is significantly more robust. This is so because each extra reported index crime in the major city is linked to a net decline of estimated one resident. Therefore, the research indicates that a 10 percent increase in crime corresponds to a 1 percent decline in the city population (Cullen & Levitt, 2013). Similarly, the use of household-level data established the relative responsiveness of a diverse population subgroups. The outcome indicates that the impact of crime on the city population is due to increased out-migration. The association between changes in crime and in-migration seems to be feeble. Moreover, the most educated residents and those with children are extremely responsive to crime.
The research indicated that households with children have greater chances to remain in the cities. This is so because the direct effect of having children in this home is to maintain people in cities. However, the relationship between children and increasing crimes drives families from the city. Similarly, the degree that the city population is influenced by a greater pattern of migration is based on the state population changes and significant determinant of the city growth rates. Therefore, the research indicates that the valid instruments for the crime variable must influence the city crime rates, but not the change of the city population.
Therefore, across a variety of specification and data sets used in the research, each reported city crime is linked with about the one-person decline in city residents. The research indicates that the impact of the crime on decreasing population is because of increased out-migration and not decreases in-migrant. The research indicates that the increasing city crime rates are causally associated to city depopulation.
Having obtained association between crime and urban flight, the research could not quantify how the benefits and costs of such crime-linked are distributed. It was unable to examine to what extent these costs are borne by property owners and their renters. Similarly, the research could not establish whether the highly educated people respond more to crime than less educated people do. The research also leaves behind a population, which depend greatly on city-provided public services. Therefore, this research creates great room for further research on the city crimes.
In a recap, the article demonstrates the association between the increasing city crimes and urban flight. An extra crime that is reported is linked to about one-person decrease in city population. In additional, almost all the crime linked to population decline is attributable to rise of out-migration rather than a decline in new arrivals. The households that leave the city due to crime are likely to remain within larger cities than those leave due to other reasons. The migration decisions of extremely educated homes and those with children are mainly responding to changes in crime. Therefore, causality seems to run from increasing crime rates in cities that have a decline in population.
References
Cullen, B., & Levitt, S. (2013). Crime, Urban Flight, and the Consequences for Cities. Journal of Economic Perspectives., 27(2), 133-152.
