TY - JOUR
T1 - Spreading Gangs
T2 - Exporting US Criminal Capital to El Salvador
AU - Sviatschi, Maria Micaela
N1 - Funding Information:
Esther Duflo was the coeditor for this article. I am grateful for the feedback I received from Roland Bénabou, Tim Besley, Leah Boustan, Chris Blattman, Zach Brown, Janet Currie, Will Dobbie, Thomas Fujiwara, Jonas Hjort, Ben Lessing, Nicola Limodio, Bentley Macleod, Beatriz Magaloni, Nikita Melnikov, Eduardo Morales, Mike Mueller-Smith, Suresh Naidu, Kiki Pop-Eleches, Nishith Prakash, Maria Fernanda Rosales, Violeta Rosenthal, Sandra Rozo, Jake Shapiro, Carlos Schmidt-Padilla, Santiago Tobon, Miguel Urquiola, Juan Vargas, Tom Vogl, Leonard Wanchekon, Austin Wright, Owen Zidar, and participants at numerous conferences and seminars. I am also grateful to the anonymous reviewers for several insight comments that significantly improved the paper. Meir Brooks, Paulo Matos, Sarita Ore Quispe, and Edgar Sanchez Cuevas provided excellent research assistance. All errors are my own
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 American Economic Association. All rights reserved.
PY - 2022/6
Y1 - 2022/6
N2 - This paper shows how deportation policies can backfire by disseminating not only ideas between countries but also criminal networks, spreading gangs, in this case, across El Salvador, and spurring migration back to the United States. In 1996, the US Illegal Immigration Responsibility Act increased the number of criminal deportations. In particular, the members of large Salvadoran gangs developed in Los Angeles were sent back to El Salvador. Using variation in criminal deportations over time and across cohorts, combined with geographical variation in US gangs’ location, I find that these deportations led to an increase in homicide rates and gang activity, as well as an increase in gang recruitment and migration of children.
AB - This paper shows how deportation policies can backfire by disseminating not only ideas between countries but also criminal networks, spreading gangs, in this case, across El Salvador, and spurring migration back to the United States. In 1996, the US Illegal Immigration Responsibility Act increased the number of criminal deportations. In particular, the members of large Salvadoran gangs developed in Los Angeles were sent back to El Salvador. Using variation in criminal deportations over time and across cohorts, combined with geographical variation in US gangs’ location, I find that these deportations led to an increase in homicide rates and gang activity, as well as an increase in gang recruitment and migration of children.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85132222195&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85132222195&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1257/aer.20201540
DO - 10.1257/aer.20201540
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85132222195
SN - 0002-8282
VL - 112
SP - 1985
EP - 2024
JO - American Economic Review
JF - American Economic Review
IS - 6
ER -