Noise Pollution and Violent Crime; Journal of Public Economics, Sept. 23, 2022
By Timo Hener
Abstract
This paper reveals how exposure to noise pollution increases violent crime. To identify the causal effect of noise pollution, I use daily variation in aircraft landing approaches to instrument noise levels. Increasing background noise by 4.1 decibels causes a 6.6% increase in the violent crime rate. The additional crimes mostly consist of physical assaults on men. The results imply a substantial societal burden from noise pollution beyond health impacts.
Conclusion
Noise is one of the most prevalent forms of pollution from traffic and other economic activities. It poses a potential threat to human health and affects behavior. In this paper, I have shown that an increase of 33% in perceived noise levels elevates violent crime rates by 6.6%. The causal effect for each dB in noise pollution is an increase in the violent crime rate by 1.6%. A number of reasons suggests that these estimates are lower bounds. Defensive investments to block outside noise are likely to be more prevalent in the vicinity of airports. People living in these areas may also have learned more effective coping and adaptation mechanisms to deal with loud background noise, and physiological factors such as partial hearing loss may play a similar role in cushioning the impact.
The total damage from noise and the associated social costs are important items of evidence, not least for regulators concerned with noise abatement policies. The social costs of additional violent crimes from traffic noise are substantial, as shown in Table 7. Based on the reduced form estimates, an additional 1,033 violence victims per year are inflicted upon the 4.2 million Europeans exposed to air traffic noise (EEA., 2019). Total costs from low- and high-cost scenarios for each violent crime, $26.755 and respectively $107,020 (McCollister et al., 2010, Ranson, 2014), amount to between $28 million and $111 million per year from air traffic noise in Europe.