Alex Tabarrok at Marginal Revolution waded through some statistical tables from Criminal Victimization in the United States and discovered another great reason to get and stay married:
The rate of victimization for violent crimes (per 1,000 persons aged 12 and over) for never married and married males is as follows:Never Married Males: 45.0
Married Males: 12.3Clearly, married males are older and they have settled down, usually in places away from crime hot spots. Thus the fact that the rate of victimization for married males is much lower than for never married males is no surprise. What did surprise me is that divorced males have rates of victimization about as high as for never married males:
Divorced or Separated Males: 44.2
The same pattern is even stronger for females:
Never Married Females: 38.4
Married Females: 10.3
Divorced or Separated Females: 49.4The patterns are suggestive of how large a difference one's choices can make for criminal victimization.
So divorce brings economic ruin and gets you beaten up. Let's try to avoid that.
