Is Mr. Smith Afraid to Leave Washington? Congressional District Gun Homicides and Legislator Absenteeism

ABSTRACT The impact of violent crime has been shown to extend to business confidence, the timing and types of employment, and investments in human capital. The impact of violent crime on human behavior also potentially touches upon whether U.S. Representatives perform their legislative responsibilities or instead engage in shirking behavior. More specifically, the current political debate surrounding violent crime in Washington, D.C., gives rise to an interesting question: Do U.S. Representatives who reside in and represent notably dangerous Congressional districts view the nation's capital as a refuge from the violent crime that is persistent in those districts? To the extent they do, one would predict that the rates of vote‐skipping by U.S. Representatives from notably dangerous Congressional districts would be lower than those realized for all other U.S. Representatives. Using vote‐skipping (i.e., legislator shirking) data from the 118th Congress, this study undertakes such an investigation, finding that representatives from notably dangerous Congressional districts tend to skip almost 0.9%‐points fewer votes than representatives from all other Congressional districts. This impact represents almost 35% of mean percentage of votes skipped across all legislators in the U.S. House during the 118th Congress.