Research Paper on Female Crime: Education & School Quality Impact

Background

Historically, records show a higher crime rate among men than women. These statistics explain why most studies on the causes and patterns in crime have focused on men even though female arrests have risen considerably in recent times in the United States. In light of these trends, this research assesses the effects of school quality and educational attainment on crime among women in the US. It evaluates the level at which academic attainment and education policies deter crime among women. There are several grounds for believing that the effects of educational achievements on criminal activity may vary between men and women. First, the nature of most crimes varies by gender. Secondly, women's less participation in the job market than men translates into varying opportunity costs for a crime. And thirdly, the conventional role of women as caregivers implies that the possible impacts of education on fertility may be vital if raising children gives them a reason to commit crimes.

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Crime Between Men and Women

The paper mentions the differing nature of crime by gender as one of the reasons why the effect of education on criminal activities differs between women and men. Women tend to personalize crime more than men as seen in how female murders are committed against men. Besides, from an income or productivity perspective, the lower employment rates among women signify an irrelevance of the wage returns of education in decisions to execute crimes. However, the paper maintains that women's secondary role in generating income for their families signifies that the education's effect on their marital future may be crucial if family wealth affects crime.

Women and Employment

The role of women is more restricted to the household than the job market, which results in differences in opportunity costs of crime. Additionally, the labor supply elasticity is higher among women than men. An increase in their income from education can explain most of the effects of education on criminal behavior for both men and women.

Method

This research entails an empirical analysis that starts with estimating the impacts of state-level compulsory school policies, and secondary and elementary school quality on female arrests and imprisonment rates. Taking changes in compulsory schooling policies as instruments, the research evaluates the considerable impacts of educational achievement on the likelihood of imprisonment using census data between 1960 and 1980. The research also assesses the impacts of educational attainment and school quality on state-level arrest rates among women using Uniform Crime Report Data between 1960 and 1990. The research then utilizes state-year level data on the education policy variables to estimate the quality and policy measures that were used during the applicable ages for women in the 1960, 1970 and 1980 census samples.

The Effects of School Quality and Compulsory Schooling Laws on the Educational Attainment of White Women

Even though the major effects of compulsory schooling laws on criminal activity are mainly observed through improved school achievement, the enhancement in school quality affects crime both directly and indirectly. The findings reveal that the enhancement in school quality and the strengthening of compulsory school laws result in higher levels of educational achievements among white women. Besides, raising the mandatory school ages to at least 11 years increases the completed schooling by almost 0.1 years. On comparing the two variables, school quality seems to affect female arrest rates more than the compulsory schooling laws. The school quality indicators, which are the term length, the pupil-teacher ratio, and the relative teacher wage, have statistically considerable effects on the female incarceration rates. Nonetheless, these indicators do not entirely imply that an enhancement in quality reduces crime.

Results

The research outcomes indicate minor and mixed direct impacts of school quality on the female arrest and incarceration rates. Enhancements in the three school quality indicators result in higher educational achievement for white women. Thus, the findings suggest that the improvement in school quality reduces incarceration and arrest rates indirectly by improving educational achievement. However, variations in labor market opportunities are unlikely to determine the impacts of education on crime. These impacts are likely to be a result of changes in family formation and marital opportunities. The results also reveal that requiring a minimum of 9 years of school raises the possibility of incarceration marginally by between 0.002 and 0.004% for white women. Nonetheless, increasing the minimum schooling years to 11 reduces the possibility of incarceration by between 0.01 and 0.013%. To sum it up, the results show that each extra schooling year lowers the incarceration probability by 0.05 to 0.09% for the white women.

Conclusion

This research suggests that improvement in school quality, compulsory school policies and schooling achievements result in considerable reductions in female crimes. Not only does an extra year of schooling reduce the incarceration possibility of women by 0.05 to 0.09% but also reduce their arrest rates for property and violent offenses by over 50%. However, the extra year affects white-collar crimes insignificantly. Lastly, the research shows that changes in family formation and marital opportunities are more likely to determine the impacts of education on female crimes than the variations in labor market opportunities.

References

Cano-Urbina, J., & Lochner, L. (2017). The effect of education and school quality on female crime. Journal of Human Capital, 13(2), 188-235.