The Effect of Crime on Life Satisfaction

Abstract

Crime often ranks at the top of public concern, and a majority of the public report they sometimes worry about crime. Yet, we know little about crime's impact on day-to-day quality of life. This paper provides new evidence on crime's effect on life satisfaction using a combination of victimization and subjective survey data. We find county-level crime rates and perceived neighborhood safety have little impact on overall life satisfaction. In contrast, the effect of a home burglary on life satisfaction is quite large - nearly as much as moving from excellent to good health. In monetary terms, we estimate a compensating income equivalent of nearly $85,000 for a home burglary. Thus, while being burglarized has a large and significant effect on a victim's overall life satisfaction, neither county-level crime rates nor neighborhood safety appear to have very large impacts on daily life satisfaction to the average American.