Economics
Document Type
Article
Abstract
This paper examines the impact of district-level crime rates in South Africa on individual depression symptoms. We use panel data from the National Income Dynamics Survey collected between 2008 and 2014 and estimate an individual fixed effects regression model, thus controlling for characteristics of the individual's environment that could affect crime and mental health. We find that an increase of one standard deviation in property (violent) crime is associated with a 7.2 (8.7) percentage point increase in the probability of depression symptoms. Analysis of potential mechanisms suggests that indirect exposure to crime likely affects mental health by increasing stress rather than by changing physical health or labor market outcomes. © 2023 The Authors. Review of Development Economics published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Publication Title
Review of Development Economics
Publication Date
5-2024
Volume
28
Issue
2
First Page
674
Last Page
696
ISSN
1363-6669
DOI
10.1111/rode.13074
Keywords
crime, depression, mental health, South Africa
Repository Citation
Tsaneva, Magda and LaPlante, Lauren-Kate, "The effect of crime on mental health in South Africa" (2024). Economics. 12.
https://commons.clarku.edu/faculty_economics/12
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.