Nonlinearity and bidirectional causality in the relationship between violent crime and income persistence: Evidence from a cross-country analysis

Nonlinearity and bidirectional causality in the relationship between violent crime and income persistence: Evidence from a cross-country analysis | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Nonlinearity and bidirectional causality in the relationship between violent crime and income persistence: Evidence from a cross-country analysis Maria Berrittella This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-6252197/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract This paper is the first study which investigates nonlinearity and bidirectional causality between violent crime and intergenerational income transmission using cross-sectional data for 32 countries. This paper has the distinctive characteristic of combining data on intergenerational income elasticity with those on violent crime rates in two specific points in time across the life course of the cohort, which are when the descendants are young, that is in upper school age, and when the descendants are in middle age, that is in occupational age. A U-shaped relationship exists between violent crime and income persistence in the young period of the cohort, whereas bidirectional causality occurs in middle age. Education is the causal mechanism by which violent crime and income persistence may operate on each other. Moreover, the heterogeneity analysis suggests that redistributive policies oriented to alleviate income inequality are appropriate causal mechanisms to reduce income persistence as well as violent crime in developing countries. JEL Classification: H41; J62; K42; Z13 education income inequality income persistence violent crime Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-6252197","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":439567965,"identity":"c087fa2f-3161-4cf4-bb64-345d31dd7652","order_by":0,"name":"Maria Berrittella","email":"data:image/png;base64,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","orcid":"","institution":"University of Palermo","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Maria","middleName":"","lastName":"Berrittella","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-03-18 10:38:13","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6252197/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6252197/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":83074502,"identity":"73d44747-ab59-4808-ae96-54b85ad61907","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-05-19 17:46:33","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":502902,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"fileforreview20032025.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6252197/v1_covered_cadcd325-67d9-4aee-add0-099082ce8668.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"Nonlinearity and bidirectional causality in the relationship between violent crime and income persistence: Evidence from a cross-country analysis","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"education, income inequality, income persistence, violent crime","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6252197/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6252197/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eThis paper is the first study which investigates nonlinearity and bidirectional causality between violent crime and intergenerational income transmission using cross-sectional data for 32 countries. 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