The acute effect of local homicides on children’s cognitive performance

This study estimates the acute effect of local homicides on the cognitive performance of children across a community. Data are from a sample of children age 6-17 in the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods. The acute effect of local homicides on vocabulary and reading assessments is identified by exploiting exogenous variation in the relative timing of local homicides and interview assessments among children living within the same neighborhood but assessed at different times. Among African Americans, exposure to a homicide in the child’s block group that occurs less than a week prior to the assessment reduces performance on vocabulary and reading assessments by roughly one half standard deviation. Results are replicated using a second independent dataset from Chicago. Findings suggest the need for a broader recognition of the impact that extreme acts of violence have on children across a neighborhood, regardless of whether the violence is witnessed directly