Child's Gender, Young Fathers' Crime, and Spillover Effects in Criminal Behaviour

This paper addresses the question whether an exogenous reduction in the criminal activity of one individual lowers crimes committed by other young men who live in the immediate neighbourhood. We first show that men who father their first child at a very young age are convicted of significantly fewer crimes in the first years after birth if the child is a son rather than a daughter. This significantly reduces criminal convictions among other young men living in the same neighbourhood as the father at the child's birth, and victimization rates, for at least five years after birth.