School and Crime

Todd Jones and Ezra Karger ()

No 16506, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Criminal activity is seasonal, peaking in the summer and declining through the winter. We provide the first evidence that arrests of children and reported crimes involving children follow a different pattern: peaking during the school year and declining in the summer. We use a regression discontinuity design surrounding the exact start and end dates of the school year to show that this pattern is caused by school: children aged 10–17 are roughly 50% more likely to be involved in a reported crime during the beginning of the school year relative to the weeks before school begins. This sharp increase is driven by student-on-student crimes occurring in school and during school hours. We use the timing of these patterns and a seasonal adjustment to argue that school increases reported crime rates (and arrests) involving 10–17-year-old offenders by 47% (41%) annually relative to a counterfactual where crime rates follow typical seasonal patterns. School exacerbates preexisting sex-based and race-based inequality in reported crime and arrest rates, increasing both the Black-white and male-female gap in reported juvenile crime and arrest rates by more than 40%.

Keywords: school; crime; academic calendar; regression discontinuity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I2 K4 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 83 pages
Date: 2023-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-law and nep-ure
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Working Paper: School and Crime (2023)
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