This paper studies the effects of the court-ordered removal of children from home on health and crime. To isolate causal effects, I exploit quasi-random variation in judge assignment together with across-judge variation in the tendency to favor removal in an instrumental variable (IV) design. Using a novel data set (N=26,481) based on Swedish court documents that I transcribe and link with detailed register data, I find that court-ordered out-of-home placement has large adverse effects on the mortality of the marginal child. These effects are primarily driven by suicides that occur while the removed child is still placed in out-of-home care. Removal also causes an increase in hospitalizations for mental illness and non-narcotic crimes. For birth parents, I again find an increase in non-narcotic crimes but there is little evidence of adverse health effects. I explore potential explanations for the detrimental effects on child health. Peer victimization, peer-to-peer spillovers, and adverse care home conditions appear to be important channels. 

Link: Surviving Childhood 

Individuals struggling with substance abuse and self-harm are often treated in group-based programs. This paper examines how peers in residential treatment facilities affect each other’s outcomes using novel data on over 16,000 youths admitted to Swedish state facilities between 2000 and 2020. To address nonrandom assignment, I implement an instrumental variables (IV) strategy exploiting within-year variation in peer composition. I find strong reinforcing peer effects: exposure to peers with similar histories greatly increases the risk of post-discharge hospitalization for substance abuse and self-harm.

Link: Treated Together