Politically motivated crime (PMC) is often linked to deeper societal divisions within established democracies. Shocking displays of PMCs, such as a series of murders of politicians across Europe, showcase that crime is no longer a fringe phenomenon in democratic politics. Yet little is known about their potentially destabilizing effects.
This paper investigates if rising levels of political crime polarize public opinion and influence voting behavior. More specifically, the project relies on novel event-level data on PMCs that originate from official German police records. In the context of German local elections, I use a difference-in-differences design to analyze how incidents of crime impact voter turnout and influence electoral polarization at the ballot. My analysis also underpins that differentiating among varying types of crime is crucial to expose their differential effects on voter behavior. Overall, my study contributes to an emerging literature on the consequences of political crime in Western democracies.