Seasonal agricultural activity and crime

Abstract

Sudden shocks to labor demand have sometimes been shown to increase local crime rates. We build on this literature by estimating the causal effect of labor-intensive seasonal agricultural activity on crime. We analyze a unique data set that describes criminal activity and fruit, vegetable, and horticultural (FVH) employment by month and U.S. county from 1990 to 2016. We find that the FVH labor share is associated with reduced property and violent crime rates, and possibly the number of property crimes committed within county years. Examining heterogeneities based on ethnicity, labor-intensive FVH activity decreases the rate of non-Hispanic arrests and victimization, and increases the number of Hispanic arrests and victims (consistent with rising local Hispanic populations). Taken together, results are broadly consistent with the idea that agricultural harvest of labor-intensive crops enhances local labor market opportunities that reduce incentives to commit crimes. Results are robust to a battery of alternative specifications that address the inherent challenges associated with measuring seasonal agricultural labor.

Minimum wage increases and agricultural employment of locals and guest workers

“…There are many still-unanswered questions regarding how rising wages affect the farm workforce. Other datasets, including the Quarterly Census of Employment and National Agricultural Worker Survey, which have been used in farm labor research, for example, Charlton et al (2022); Richards (2018), may yield additional insights on broader minimum wage impacts, especially if they capture additional or different subpopulations of farm workers. Replicating Cengiz et al (2019) in a data set that captures hourly wages for farm workers would also improve understanding of farm labor market dynamics.…”

Rural American farmers’ perceptions of crime, safety and policing

“…As of 2017, a significant number of large operations in the United States rely on foreign-born workers and nearly 50% of hired crop workers lacked the required immigration status to legally work in the U.S. (USDOL, ETA, 2017;Zahniser et al, 2018). However, available research does not substantiate the fears about immigrant workforce laborers (Barclay, 2001;Charlton et al, 2021;Osborne et al, 2019). In fact, using NIBRS data, Osborne et al (2019) found that perpetrators of farm crime in the U.S. were mostly white men living in the same jurisdiction as those they victimized.…”

Automation and social impacts: winners and losers

“…Residents in agricultural communities of California have often objected to building temporary farmworker housing for non-immigrant guest workers because they feared that it would reduce the value of their homes and increase crime rates. Nevertheless, rigorous analysis shows that seasonal, labour-intensive agricultural activity is associated with a reduction in monthly crime rates within counties of the United States of America (Charlton, James and Smith, 2022). However, as seasonal farm workers began to settle in the United States of America with their families, increased agricultural employment was shown to increase immigrant shares in rural areas and vice versa, while both immigration and increased agricultural employment increased local poverty rates (Martin and Taylor, 2003).…”