Crime and Education

Research studying the connections between crime and education is a prominent aspect of the big increase of publication and research interest in the economics of crime field. This work demonstrates a crime-reducing impact of education, which can be interpreted as causal through leveraging research designs (e.g., based on education policy changes) that ensure the direction of causality flows from education to crime. A significant body of research also explores in detail, and in various directions, the means by which education has a crime-reducing impact. This includes evidence on incapacitation- versus productivity-raising aspects of education and on the quality of schooling at different stages of education, ranging from early age interventions through primary and secondary schooling to policy changes that alter the school dropout age. This evidence base shows that there are education policies that have been effective crime prevention tools in many settings around the world.