Marco Ovidi (Catholic University of Milan)
Paul Bingley, Lorenzo Cappellari and Matteo Sandi
We study the effects of parental criminal victimization on childrens human capital development using Danish registry data from 2001-2023. Leveraging a Difference-in-Differences design that compares children exposed to parental victimization against a matched control group, we find that parental violent victimization reduces a childs end-of-school achievement by 0.02-0.03 standard deviations. These penalties are driven by victimization occurring during early childhood (0.05 standard deviations) and are more pronounced for paternal victimization and male children. We identify parental criminal behavior, particularly fathers perpetrating violence, as a key mechanism, alongside reduced family stability and parental labor market detachment. In contrast, property crime victimization shows no detectable spillovers. These findings suggest that crime victimization is an underappreciated driver of intergenerational inequality.