| Abstract: |
Although a huge literature spanning several disciplines documents an
association between poverty and child abuse, researchers have not found
persuasive evidence that economic downturns increase abuse, despite their
impacts on family income. In this paper, we address this seeming
contradiction. Using county-level child abuse data spanning 1996 to 2009 from
the California Department of Justice, we estimate the extent to which a
county's reported abuse rate diverges from its trend when its economic
conditions diverge from trend, controlling for statewide annual shocks. The
results of this analysis indicate that overall measures of economic conditions
are not strongly related to rates of abuse. However, focusing on overall
measures of economic conditions masks strong opposing effects of economic
conditions facing males and females: male layoffs increase rates of abuse
whereas female layoffs reduce rates of abuse. These results are consistent
with a theoretical framework that builds on family-time-use models and
emphasizes differential risks of abuse associated with a child's time spent
with different caregivers. |