The Aftermath of Crime: Indirect Exposure to Homicides, Maternal Stress, and Newborns’ Health

Abstract

This paper studies the impact of the mothers’ indirect exposure to homicides on newborns’ health outcomes. To do so, I combine two data sets that reflect the mothers’ home address during pregnancy and the geographical coordinates of all the homicides that occurred in Ecuador in the period 2015 to 2017. To deal with endogeneity with respect to crime exposure, I use two empirical strategies. Firstly, I use a DID estimation approach that analyzes the difference between being exposed to a homicide during pregnancy or not, relative to the analogous difference of being exposed within the 9 months following the newborns’ birth. Second, I use a maternal fixed-effects estimation that considers mothers who had several children in the period studied and who were subject to different exposure levels. The results show that exposure to homicides during pregnancy generates a birth weight deficit of between 20 and 31 grams, compared to newborns exposed to homicides post-pregnancy. Moreover, once controlled by the maternal fixed effects, I find that newborns exposed to homicides have a birth weight deficit of between 41 and 101 grams, compared to their non-exposed siblings. I also find that the effects of maternal stress generated by homicide exposure is attenuated when controlling for past exposure to homicides in the mother’s surroundings. No cofounding effects of income and nutrition are found. This research is one of the first to analyze the indirect effects of violent crimes on newborns’ health and it appeals for health policies targeted to address the stress during pregnancy.

Note:
Funding Information: I declare I did not received any funding for the elaboration of the paper or its data collection.

Conflict of Interests: I declare there is no conflict of interest or influences that affects or undermines the objective and integrity of the paper for its publication.

Keywords: Homicides, maternal stress, newborns’ health, birth weight, spatial buffers, kernel density estimation, homicide density, Ecuador

JEL Classification: I12, I15, J13, O12