RT Book
T1 Broadband Internet: An Information Superhighway to Sex Crime?
A1 Bhuller, Manudeep
A2 Mogstad, Magne
A2 Leuven, Edwin
A2 Havnes, Tarjei
LA English
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1866337084
AB Does internet use trigger sex crime? We use unique Norwegian data on crime and internet adoption to shed light on this question. A public program with limited funding rolled out broadband access points in 2000-2008, and provides plausibly exogenous variation in internet use. Our instrumental variables and fixed effect estimates show that internet use is associated with a substantial increase in reported incidences of rape and other sex crimes. We present a theoretical framework that highlights three mechanisms for how internet use may affect reported sex crime, namely a reporting effect, a matching effect on potential offenders and victims, and a direct effect on crime propensity. Our results indicate that the direct effect is non-negligible and positive, plausibly as a result of increased consumption of pornography.rape, sex crimes, instrumental variables, broadband, internet, pornography
K1 Research