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Abortion and Crime: Unwanted Children and Out-of-Wedlock Births


John R. Lott Jr.


University of Maryland Foundation, University of Maryland

John E. Whitley


University of Adelaide - School of Economics

April 30, 2001

Yale Law & Economics Research Paper No. 254

Abstract:     
Abortion may prevent the birth of "unwanted" children, who would have relatively small investments in human capital and a higher probability of crime. On the other hand, some research suggests that legalizing abortion increases out-of-wedlock births and single parent families, which implies the opposite impact on investments in human capital and thus crime. The question is: what is the net impact? We find evidence that legalizing abortion increased murder rates by around about 0.5 to 7 percent. Previous estimates are shown to suffer from not directly linking the cohorts who are committing crime with whether they had been born before or after abortion was legal.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 46

JEL Classification: K4, D13, H11

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Date posted: May 16, 2001  

Suggested Citation

Lott, John R. and Whitley, John E., Abortion and Crime: Unwanted Children and Out-of-Wedlock Births (April 30, 2001). Yale Law & Economics Research Paper No. 254. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=270126 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.270126

Contact Information

John R. Lott Jr. (Contact Author)
University of Maryland Foundation, University of Maryland ( email )
University of Maryland
College Park, MD 20742
United States
John E. Whitley
University of Adelaide - School of Economics ( email )
Adelaide SA, 5005
Australia
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