Fear of Crime and Housing Prices: Household Reactions to Sex Offender Registries

43 Pages Posted: 1 Oct 2008

Date Written: June 30, 2008

Abstract

Megan's Law requires public dissemination of information from sex offender registries. Opponents to this controversial law have questioned whether households misinterpret or even use this information. One concern was that the information might simply induce a "fear of crime." This study finds evidence for both use and misinterpretation of the publicly available information on sex offenders. Using a unique dataset that tracks sex offenders in Hillsborough County, Florida, the results indicate that after a sex offender moves into a neighborhood, nearby housing prices fall by 2.3% ($3,500 on average). However, once a sex offender moves out of a neighborhood, housing prices appear to immediately rebound. Surprisingly, these price impacts do not appear to differ in areas near high risk offenders labeled as "predators."

Keywords: Information Disclosure, Crime, Hedonic, Property Values, Megan's Law

JEL Classification: H80, Q51, K32, R21

Suggested Citation

Pope, Jaren C., Fear of Crime and Housing Prices: Household Reactions to Sex Offender Registries (June 30, 2008). Journal of Urban Economics, Forthcoming, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1275854

Jaren C. Pope (Contact Author)

Virginia Tech ( email )

250 Drillfield Drive
Blacksburg, VA 24061
United States

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