The crime reducing effect of education

Stephen Machin, Olivier Marie and Sunčica Vujić ()

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: In this paper, we present evidence on empirical connections between crime and education, using various data sources from Britain. A robust finding is that criminal activity is negatively associated with higher levels of education. However, it is essential to ensure that the direction of causation flows from education to crime. Therefore, we identify the effect of education on participation in criminal activity using changes in compulsory school leaving age laws over time to account for the endogeneity of education. In this causal approach, for property crimes, the negative crime-education relationship remains strong and significant. The implications of these findings are unambiguous and clear. They show that improving education can yield significant social benefits and can be a key policy tool in the drive to reduce crime.

Keywords: Crime; education; offenders (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I2 K42 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 38 pages
Date: 2010
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (19)

Downloads: (external link)
http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/28727/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: The Crime Reducing Effect of Education (2011)
Working Paper: The Crime Reducing Effect of Education (2010)
Working Paper: The Crime Reducing Effect of Education (2010)
Working Paper: The crime reducing effect of education (2010)
Working Paper: The crime reducing effect of education (2010)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:28727

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