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In School and Out of Trouble? Investigating the Effects of Furloughing Public School Teachers on Juvenile Crime in Hawaii

Author

Listed:
  • Randall Q. Akee

    (UCLA, Luskin School of Public Affairs)

  • Timothy J. Halliday

    (UHERO, University of Hawaii at Manoa)

  • Sally Kwak

    (U.S. Congress, Joint Committee on Taxation)

Abstract

Due to the large social costs of juvenile crime, policymakers have long been concerned about its causes. In the 2009-10 school year, the State of Hawaii responded to fiscal strains by furloughing all school teachers employed by the Department of Education and canceling class for seventeen instructional days. We examine the effects of this unusually short school year to draw conclusions about the relationship between time in school and juvenile arrests on Oahu. We calculate marginal effects from a negative binomial model and find that time off from school is associated with significantly fewer juvenile assault and drug-related arrests, although there are no changes in other types of crimes, such as burglaries. During the shortened school year, we calculate that there were twenty fewer assault arrests and fourteen fewer drug-related arrests of juveniles on Oahu. The declines in arrests for assaults were the most pronounced in poorer regions of the island whereas the declines in drug-related arrests were higher in relatively more prosperous regions.

Suggested Citation

  • Randall Q. Akee & Timothy J. Halliday & Sally Kwak, 2011. "In School and Out of Trouble? Investigating the Effects of Furloughing Public School Teachers on Juvenile Crime in Hawaii," Working Papers 2013-7, University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization, University of Hawaii at Manoa, revised May 2014.
    • Handle: RePEc:hae:wpaper:2013-7r2
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Berthelon, Matias E. & Kruger, Diana I., 2011. "Risky behavior among youth: Incapacitation effects of school on adolescent motherhood and crime in Chile," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(1-2), pages 41-53, February.
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    3. Brian A. Jacob & Lars Lefgren, 2003. "Are Idle Hands the Devil's Workshop? Incapacitation, Concentration, and Juvenile Crime," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(5), pages 1560-1577, December.
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    5. D. Mark Anderson & Mary Beth Walker, 2015. "Does Shortening the School Week Impact Student Performance? Evidence from the Four-Day School Week," Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press, vol. 10(3), pages 314-349, July.
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    Cited by:

    1. Fischer, Stefanie & Argyle, Daniel, 2018. "Juvenile crime and the four-day school week," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 31-39.
    2. Hamid Noghanibehambari & Farzaneh Noghani & Nahid Tavassoli, 2023. "Social externalities of women empowerment: Evidence from suffrage movements of late nineteenth and early twentieth century United States," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 70(3), pages 268-284, July.
    3. Pedro Luis Silva & Carla Sá & Ricardo Biscaia & Pedro N. Teixeira, 2022. "High school and exam scores: Does their predictive validity for academic performance vary with programme selectivity?," NIPE Working Papers 4/2022, NIPE - Universidade do Minho.
    4. Anderson, D. Mark & Lochner, Lance, 2016. "Introduction to the Special Issue on Education and Crime," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 211-213.
    5. Niekamp, Paul & Ketterling, Lyndsey, 2025. "Home alone: Schooling and the effect of child access prevention laws on juvenile firearm-related homicide," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 254(C).
    6. Barnes, Stephen & Beland, Louis-Philippe & Joshi, Swarup & Willage, Barton, 2022. "Staying out of trouble? Effect of high school career counseling on crime," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    7. Steinberg, Matthew P. & Ukert, Benjamin & MacDonald, John M., 2019. "Schools as places of crime? Evidence from closing chronically underperforming schools," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 125-140.

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    JEL classification:

    • J08 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General - - - Labor Economics Policies
    • I24 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Inequality

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