Crime and Violence: Desensitization in Victims to Watching Criminal Events

By:	Rafael Di Tella (Harvard Business School, Business, Government and the International Economy Unit) ; Lucía Freira (Universidad Torcuato Di Tella) ; Ramiro H. Gálvez (Universidad Torcuato Di Tella) ; Ernesto Schargrodsky (Universidad Torcuato Di Tella) ; Diego Shalom (Universidad Torcuato Di Tella) ; Mariano Sigman (Universidad Torcuato Di Tella)
We study desensitization to crime in a lab experiment by showing footage of criminal acts to a group of subjects, some of whom have been previously victimized. We measure biological markers of stress and behavioral indices of cognitive control before and after treated participants watch a series of real, crime-related videos (while the control group watches non-crime-related videos). Not previously victimized participants exposed to the treatment video show significant changes in cortisol level, heart rate, and measures of cognitive control. Instead, previously victimized individuals who are exposed to the treatment video show biological markers and cognitive performance comparable to those measured in individuals exposed to the control video. These results suggest a phenomenon of desensitization or habituation of victims to crime exposure.
Keywords:	crime, biological markers, experiment, victimization, desensitization
JEL:	K42
URL:	http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hbs:wpaper:18-039&r=ltv