Title: Climate variability and crime rates in the Southeastern USA

Authors: Suzan Odabaşı; Valentina M. Hartarska

Addresses: Department of Economics, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Uşak University, Uşak, Turkey ' Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology, Auburn University, USA; Department of Finance, Auburn University, USA

Abstract: Recent data show that about 40% of all crimes in the USA occur in the southeast. A growing body of literature indicates that the Southeastern US region is the most affected by climate change. This study investigates to what extent variations in temperature relate to crime rates in the southeastern states within a typical empirical crime model framework where crime rates are function of standard controls. We use county-level panel data for the period from 2010 to 2014 for all southeastern states. This analysis utilises the two-stage least squares (2SLS) regression analysis to address the possible endogeneity of police presence and alcohol consumption in the crime rate supply equation. The results show that higher average maximum and minimum daily temperature is associated with higher robbery, property, and grand larceny. Additionally, alcohol consumption seems to accelerate crime rates and is associated with increase in violence, robbery, assault, grand larceny, and motor vehicle theft.

Keywords: crime; climate variability; panel data models; USA.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSSOC.2024.139499

International Journal of Sustainable Society, 2024 Vol.16 No.2, pp.91 - 106

Received: 31 Mar 2022
Received in revised form: 04 Aug 2022
Accepted: 27 Oct 2022
Published online: 03 Jul 2024 *

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