TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2001//
TI  - Abortion and crime: unwanted children and out-of-wedlock births
JO  - Social Science Research Network electronic library
A1  - Whitley, J. E.
A1  - Lott, John Richard
SP  - ID 270126
EP  - ID 270126
VL  - 2001
IS  - online
N2  - 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.    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 doi:10.2139/ssrn.270126<p />
LA  - en
SN  - 1556-5068
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.270126
ID  - ref1
ER  -