Crime and Violence

In Argentina, the proportion of violent crimes over total crime has been growing as crime increases. One potential explanation for this phenomenon is that victimized individuals become “vaccinated” against crime and, therefore, more violence is necessary to scare them. In this paper, we develop an experiment which provides evidence consistent with this explanation. In our experiment, we measure biological markers of stress and cognitive control before and after participants watch real crime or control videos. Individuals previously victimized exposed to the treatment video show cognitive performance and biological markers comparable to those measured in individuals exposed to the control video. Instead, non-previously victimized individuals exposed to the treatment video show significant changes in cortisol level, heart rate, and measures of cognitive control.