• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

IZA Newsroom

IZA – Institute of Labor Economics

  • Home
  • Archive
  • Press Lounge
  • DE
  • EN
ResearchSeptember 24, 2018

Why does education reduce crime?

Keeping kids “off the streets” may matter more than improving their labor market prospects

© iStockphoto.com/FelixRenaud

Reduced criminality is a beneficial consequence of education policies that raise the school leaving age. There are two possible explanations: First, extra time spent in the education system increases labor market prospects and makes crime relatively less profitable (the longer-term effect). Second, children in the classroom are kept off the streets and have less free time to commit crimes (the temporary “incapacitation” effect).

A new IZA discussion paper by Brian Bell, Rui Costa and Stephen Machin analyzes both mechanisms within the same empirical setting. The paper studies how crime reductions occurred in a sequence of state-level dropout age reforms enacted between 1980 and 2010 in the United States. The authors find that these reforms changed the shape of crime-age profiles, reflecting both a temporary incapacitation effect and a more sustained crime-reducing effect in the longer run.

In contrast to previous research looking at earlier education reforms, crime reduction does not arise solely as a result of education improvements. The reforms studied in the new paper at best had very modest effects on average educational attainment and wages. The authors instead interpret the observed longer run effect as “dynamic incapacitation” – which essentially means that avoiding trouble during the school-age years keeps people on the right track later in life.

Featured Paper:

IZA Discussion Paper No. 11805 Why Does Education Reduce Crime? Brian Bell, Rui Costa, Stephen Machin

Share this article

Share on X Share on Facebook Share on LinkedIn Share via e-mail
  • crime
  • education
  • education policy
  • high school dropouts
  • school leaving age
  • Brian Bell
  • Rui Costa
  • Stephen Machin
Previous Post
Shuffle
Next Post

Reader Interactions

Primary Sidebar

Recent Posts

  • June 4, 2025

    How workplaces shape the economic impact of caregiving shocks on mothers
  • June 2, 2025

    How administrative data fosters young economists’ careers
  • May 30, 2025

    Raising the glass raises risks for the whole family

Related Content

  • January 20, 2016

    Labor market policy: Parts of the picture are missing
  • September 21, 2020

    How a second chance in education influences labor market outcomes
  • December 6, 2024

    Education increases family formation among women but has no effect on men
  • 
  • 
  • Archive
  • 
  • Research
  • 
  • Why does education reduce crime?

© 2013–2025 Deutsche Post STIFTUNGImprint | Privacy PolicyIZA