ERIC Number: ED463346
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2001-Dec
Pages: 52
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
The Effect of Education on Crime: Evidence from Prison Inmates, Arrests, and Self-Reports.
Lochner, Lance; Moretti, Enrico
This paper estimates the effect of education on participation in crime and incarceration, using data from the U.S. Census and changes in state compulsory attendance laws. Increases in compulsory schooling ages are not correlated with increases in state resources devoted to fighting crime. Research suggests that additional years of secondary schooling reduce the probability of incarceration, with the greatest impact associated with completing high school. Black-white differences in educational attainment explain up to 23 percent of the gap in incarceration rates. FBI arrest data corroborate findings on incarceration. The main impacts of education relate to murder, assault, and motor vehicle theft. The study examines the effect of schooling on self-reported crime in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, noting that estimates for imprisonment and arrest are caused by changes in criminal behavior, not educational differences in the probability of arrest or incarceration conditional on crime. The study calculates social savings from crime reduction associated with high school graduation. The externality is about 14-26 percent of the private return, suggesting that a significant part of the social return to completing high school comes in the form of externalities from crime reduction. (Contains 12 tables and 37 references.) (SM)
Publication Type: Numerical/Quantitative Data; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
IES Cited: ED544499