Frustration, euphoria, and violent crime

B-Tier
Journal: Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization
Year: 2013
Volume: 89
Issue: C
Pages: 136-142

Score contribution per author:

1.005 = (α=2.01 / 2 authors) × 1.0x B-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

We exploit a series of natural experiments that use real crime data to investigate the effect of a violation of expectancies on violent crime. We study two types of violation of expectancies that generate the emotions of frustration and euphoria. Our empirical designs exploit differential expectations (as measured by the odds of soccer games in the betting market) while maintaining the outcome unchanged (a loss in a soccer game for frustration, a win in a soccer game for euphoria). We find that frustration is followed by a spike in violent crime whereas euphoria is followed by a reduction in violent crime. The two effects are concentrated in a narrow time window after the end of the game: 1h.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:eee:jeborg:v:89:y:2013:i:c:p:136-142
Journal Field
Theory
Author Count
2
Added to Database
2026-01-26