Does School Social Work Work? The Impact of School Social Workers on Youth Crime and Education

Katharina Drescher

No 246, Working Papers from Bavarian Graduate Program in Economics (BGPE)

Abstract: I study the impact of school social workers on youth crime and education. As a political reaction to a school rampage, a large German state introduced funding for school social workers, resulting in a strong increase in their numbers. Using the spatial and temporal variation in its implementation and unique administrative crime data, I find that school social workers reduce youth crime by 17% per year, lower victimization from violent crimes, and help uncover sexual offenses. They also improve educational outcomes by reducing grade retention. The results emphasize the crucial role of school personnel beyond teachers in shaping youth development.

Keywords: School Social Work; Education; Crime; Victimization; Youth (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I20 I24 J13 K42 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 48 pages
Date: 2026-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu and nep-law
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.bgpe.de/files/2026/01/DP246_final.pdf First version, 2026 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bav:wpaper:246_drescher.rdf

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from Bavarian Graduate Program in Economics (BGPE) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Anton Barabasch ().