IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ucp/jhucap/doi10.1086-702927.html

The Effect of Education and School Quality on Female Crime

Author

Listed:
  • Javier Cano-Urbina
  • Lance Lochner

Abstract

This paper estimates the effects of educational attainment and school quality on crime among American women. Using changes in compulsory schooling laws as instruments and census data, we estimate significant effects of schooling attainment on the probability of incarceration. Using Uniform Crime Reports data, we estimate that increases in average state schooling levels reduce arrest rates for violent and property crime but not white collar crime. We find small and mixed direct effects of school quality on incarceration and arrests. We show that the effects of education on female crime are mostly related to changes in marital opportunities and family formation.

Suggested Citation

  • Javier Cano-Urbina & Lance Lochner, 2019. "The Effect of Education and School Quality on Female Crime," Journal of Human Capital, University of Chicago Press, vol. 13(2), pages 188-235.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucp:jhucap:doi:10.1086/702927
    DOI: 10.1086/702927
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/702927
    Download Restriction: Access to the online full text or PDF requires a subscription.
    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/702927
    Download Restriction: Access to the online full text or PDF requires a subscription.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1086/702927?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or

    for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ji Liu, 2024. "Education legislations that equalize: a study of compulsory schooling law reforms in post-WWII United States," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-12, December.
    2. Maria Micaela Sviatschi, 2022. "Making a NARCO: Childhood Exposure to Illegal Labor Markets and Criminal Life Paths," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 90(4), pages 1835-1878, July.
    3. Randi Hjalmarsson & Stephen Machin & Paolo Pinotti, 2024. "Crime and the labor market," CEP Discussion Papers dp2044, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    4. Hjalmarsson, Randi & Machin, Stephen & Pinotti, Paolo, 2024. "Crime and the labor market," Handbook of Labor Economics,, Elsevier.
    5. Sinha, Avik & Sengupta, Tuhin, 2020. "Governance Quality and Tourism: Moderation of Social Determinants of Crime," MPRA Paper 102212, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2020.
    6. Noghanibehambari, Hamid & Tavassoli, Nahid, 2022. "An ounce of prevention, a pound of cure: The effects of college expansions on crime," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    7. Beatton, Tony & Kidd, Michael P. & Sandi, Matteo, 2020. "School indiscipline and crime," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 108475, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    8. Janine Boshoff & Stephen Machin & Matteo Sandi, 2025. "Youth Crime and Delinquency In And Out Of School," DISCE - Working Papers del Dipartimento di Economia e Finanza def141, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Dipartimenti e Istituti di Scienze Economiche (DISCE).
    9. Clay, Karen & Lingwall, Jeff & Jr, Melvin Stephens, 2021. "Laws, educational outcomes, and returns to schooling evidence from the first wave of U.S. state compulsory attendance laws," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    10. Patrick Bennett & Amine Ouazad, 2020. "Job Displacement, Unemployment, and Crime: Evidence from Danish Microdata and Reforms [The Link between Human Capital, Mass Layoffs, and Firm Deaths]," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 18(5), pages 2182-2220.
    11. Bennett, Patrick, 2018. "The heterogeneous effects of education on crime: Evidence from Danish administrative twin data," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 160-177.
    12. Stephen Machin & Matteo Sandi & Steve Machin, 2024. "Crime and Education," CESifo Working Paper Series 11450, CESifo.
    13. Chevalier, Arnaud & Marie, Olivier, 2024. "Risky moms, risky kids? fertility and crime after the fall of the wall," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 230(C).
    14. repec:crm:wpaper:2624 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Beatton, Tony & Kidd, Michael P. & Machin, Stephen, 2018. "Gender crime convergence over twenty years: Evidence from Australia," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 275-288.
    16. Campaniello, Nadia & Gavrilova, Evelina, 2018. "Uncovering the gender participation gap in crime," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 289-304.
    17. Mary A. Silles, 2023. "The effect of education on homeownership: Evidence from 20th century school attendance laws in the United States," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 91(1), pages 1-17, January.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • H75 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - State and Local Government: Health, Education, and Welfare
    • I22 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Educational Finance; Financial Aid
    • K42 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ucp:jhucap:doi:10.1086/702927. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Journals Division (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/JHC .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.