DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME AND HOMICIDES: LIGHT EFFECT IN CRIMES OF A BRAZILIAN STATE

• Autor(a) principal: Cortes, Renan Xavier
• Data de Publicação: 2021
• Outros Autores: Fochezatto, Adelar, Jacinto, Paulo de Andrade
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Análise Econômica (Online)
• Texto Completo: https://seer.ufrgs.br/index.php/AnaliseEconomica/article/view/80052
• topic: Crime; Criminology; Daylight saving time; Homicide rate; Regression discontinuity design; C14; Q58; K42; Crime. Criminologia; Horário de verão; Taxa de homicídios; Regressão com descontinuidade; C14; Q58; K42

This article analyzes the effect of daylight saving time (DST) on crimes inthe Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. With the argument that DST provides “more”hours of light throughout the day, it is expected that the criminal behavior will reduce atits implantation, since a clearer environment can dissuade the potential criminal. Making use of several regression discontinuity design (RDD) models and a daily databaseranging from 2006 to 2014 of the Mortality Information System (SIM) of Datasus, themodels were estimated separately by year, being able to include wheater independentvariables (such as temperature, precipitation and wind speed) and fixed effects of daysof the week. It was evidenced that DST has no significant effect on changes in homiciderates per 100,000 inhabitants, neither in its beginning, nor its end. On the other hand,it has been found that, in general, there is a strong weekend effect on criminal activityand some evidence that homicide rates are related to temperature.