Born to Hit and Run? Rugged Individualism, justice quality and non-stopping after traffic collisions in the U.S.

Abstract

Judicial effectiveness influence on premediated violent crimes is widely acknowledged, however little is known on its effect on Hit&Run (H&R) accidents, which are involuntary crimes in the first stage (the “Hit”) while becoming voluntary in the second stage (the “Run”). This paper provides a quantitative estimation of the effect of judicial effectiveness on H&R accidents in the U.S, where they generate high socioeconomic and emotional cost. We exploit a unique micro-regional database for U.S. counties for 2010–2018 and an instrumental variable model which draws on the Durkheimian role of individualism in shaping the evolution of institutions. We find that higher judicial effectiveness, induced by historical and persistent individualism, has a substantial signaling effect capable of deterring H&R. Results are supported by several robustness checks, including testing alternative measures for judicial effectiveness to account for its composite dimensions.