CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 373School Choice and PerformanceCrime Patterns and InterventionsCriminal Justice and Corrections Analysis

Better Schools, Less Crime? *

Open access
Deming, David J.·2011·The Quarterly Journal of Economics
DOI 10.1093/qje/qjr036
Open this paper in CoChat — free accountOpen PDF

Abstract

I estimate the impact of attending a first-choice middle or high school on adult crime, using data from public school choice lotteries in Charlotte-Mecklenburg school district (CMS). Seven years after random assignment, lottery winners had been arrested for fewer serious crimes and had spent fewer days incarcerated. The gain in school quality as measured by peer and teacher inputs was equivalent to moving from one of the lowest-ranked schools to one at the district average. The reduction in crime comes largely from years after enrollment in the preferred school is complete. The impacts are concentrated among high-risk youth, who commit about 50% less crime across several different outcome measures and scalings of crime by severity. I find suggestive evidence that school quality explains more of the impact in high school, whereas peer effects are more important in middle school.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1093/qje/qjr036

Cites

3 of 3 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Students in schools with peers who frequently misbehave see declines in academic performance.

    “peers frequently misbehave see declines in academic performance (Deming, 2011; Imberman et al., 2012; Kinsler, 2013).”

    From Fostering Belonging, Transforming Schools: The Impact of Restorative Practices (2023) · cites this paper as Deming, 2011

    Section V.A (page unavailable) reports that crime-prone middle-school peers increase students’ own crime, not that misbehaving peers reduce academic performance. Section IV.C reports test-score outcomes but does not link them to peers’ misbehavior. Searches for disruptive peers, academic achievement, and test-score declines found no passage establishing the claimed relationship. (LLM, conf=0.72)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 50

  1. Abdulkadiroglu, Atila, Joshua D. Angrist, Susan M. Dynarski, Thomas J. Kane, and Parag Pathak, "Accountability and Flexibility in Public Schools: Evidence from Boston's Charters and Pilots," Quarterly Journal of Economics (2011), forthcoming.
  2. Abdulkadiroglu, Atila, and Tayfun Somnez, "School Choice: A Mechanism Design Approach," American Economic Review, 93 (2003), 729-747.
  3. Becker, Gary S., "Crime and Punishment: An Economic Approach," Journal of Political Economy, 76 (1968), 169-217.
  4. Belfield, Clive R., Milagros Nores, Steve Barnett, and Lawrence Schweinhart, "The High/Scope Perry Preschool Program: Cost Benefit Analysis Using Data from the Age-40 Followup," Journal of Human Resources, 41 (2006), 162-190.
  5. Carrell, Scott E., and Mark L. Hoekstra, "Externalities in the Classroom: How Domestic Violence Harms Everyone's Kids," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 2 (2010), 211-228.
  6. Cook, Philip J., Denise C. Gottfredson, and Chongmin Na, "School Crime Control and Prevention," Crime and Justice, 39 (2010), 313-440.
  7. Cullen, Julie Berry, Brian A. Jacob, and Steven D. Levitt, "The Effect of School Choice on Participants: Evidence from Randomized Lotteries," Econometrica, 74 (2006), 1191-1230.
  8. Currie, Janet, and Duncan Thomas, "Early Test Scores, School Quality and SES: Longrun Effects on Wage and Employment Outcomes," Research in Labor Economics, 20 (2001), 103-132.
  9. at Harvard University on June 23, 2012 http://qje.oxfordjournals.org/ Downloaded from Deming, David, "Early Childhood Intervention and Life-Cycle Skill Development: Evidence from Head Start," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 1 (2009), 111-134.
  10. Dobbie, Will, and Roland G. Fryer, "Are High-Quality Schools Enough to In- crease Achievement among the Poor? Evidence from the Harlem Chil- dren's Zone," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 3 (2011), 158-187.
  11. Donohue, John J., and Peter Siegelman, "Allocating Resources among Prisons and Social Programs in the Battle against Crime," Journal of Legal Studies, 27 (1998), 1-43.
  12. Ehrlich, Isaac, "Participation in Illegitimate Activities: A Theoretical and Empir- ical Investigation," Journal of Political Economy, 81 (1973), 521-565.
  13. Epple, Dennis, and Richard E. Romano, "Competition between Private and Public Schools, Vouchers, and Peer-Group Effects," American Economic Review, 88 (1998), 33-62.
  14. Evans, William N., Wallace E. Oates, and Robert M. Schwab, "Measuring Peer Group Effects: A Study of Teenage Behavior," Journal of Political Economy, 100 (1992), 966-991.
  15. Farrington, David P., Bernard Gallagher, Lynda Morley, Raymond St. Ledger, and Donald J. West, "Unemployment, School Leaving, and Crime," British Journal of Criminology, 26 (1986), 335-356.
  16. Figlio, David N., "Testing, Crime and Punishment," Journal of Public Economics, 90 (2006), 837-851.
  17. Figlio, David N., and Joshua Winicki, "Food for Thought: The Effects of School Accountability Plans on School Nutrition," Journal of Public Economics 89 (2005), 381-394.
  18. Glaeser, Edward L., Bruce Sacerdote, and Jose Scheinkman, "Crime and Social Interactions," Quarterly Journal of Economics, 111 (1996), 507-548.
  19. Gould, Eric D., Victor Lavy, and M. Daniele Paserman, "Immigrating to Op- portunity: Estimating the Effect of School Quality Using a Natural Experi- ment on Ethiopians in Israel," Quarterly Journal of Economics, 119 (2004), 489-526.
  20. Grogger, Jeffrey, "Market Wages and Youth Crime," Journal of Labor Economics, 16 (1998), 756-791.
  21. Haynie, Dana L., "Delinquent Peers Revisited: Does Network Structure Matter?," American Journal of Sociology, 106 (2001), 1013-1057.
  22. Caroline M. Hoxby (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003).
  23. Imberman, Scott A.,, Adriana D. Kugler, and Bruce Sacerdote, "Katrina's Chil- dren: Evidence on the Structure of Peer Effects from Hurricane Evacuees," American Economic Review, forthcoming.
  24. Jackson, C. Kirabo, "Student Demographics, Teacher Sorting, and Teacher Qual- ity: Evidence from the End of School Desegregation," Journal of Labor Economics, 27 (2009), 213-256.
  25. Jacob, Brian A., "Public Housing, Housing Vouchers, and Student Achievement: Evidence from Public Housing Demolitions in Chicago," American Economic Review, 94 (2004), 233-258.
  26. Jacob, Brian A., and Lars Lefgren, "Are Idle Hands the Devil's Workshop? Inca- pacitation, Concentration, and Juvenile Crime," American Economic Review, 93 (2003), 1560-1577.
  27. Jacob, Brian A., and Steven D. Levitt, "Rotten Apples: An Investigation of the Prevalence and Predictors of Teacher Cheating," Quarterly Journal of Eco- nomics, 118 (2003), 843-877.
  28. Jencks, Christopher S., and Meredith Phillips, "Aptitude or Achievement: Why Do Test Scores Predict Educational Attainment and Earnings?," in Earning and Learning: How Schools Matter, ed. Susan Mayer and Paul Peterson (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 1999).
  29. Kling, Jeffrey R., Jens Ludwig, and Lawrence F. Katz, "Neighborhood Effects on Crimefor Female and Male Youth: Evidence from a Randomized Housing Voucher Experiment," Quarterly Journal of Economics, 120 (2005), 87-130.
  30. Krueger, Alan B., and Diane M. Whitmore, "The Effect of Attending a Small Class in the Early Grades on College-Test Taking and Middle School Test Results: Evidence from Project STAR," Economic Journal 111 (2001), 1-28.
  31. Lankford, Hamilton, Susanna Loeb, and JamesWyckoff, "Teacher Sorting and the Plight of Urban Schools: A Descriptive Analysis," Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 24 (2002), 37-62.
  32. Lavy, Victor, "Effects of Free Choice among Public Schools," Review of Economic Studies, 77 (2010), 1164-1191.
  33. Levitt, Steven D., and Lance Lochner, "The Determinants of Juvenile Crime," in Risky Behavior among Youths: An Economic Analysis, ed. Jonathan Gruber (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001).
  34. Lochner, Lance, "Education, Work, and Crime: A Human Capital Approach," International Economic Review, 45 (2004), 811-843.
  35. Lochner, Lance, and Enrico Moretti, "The Effect of Education on Crime: Evidence from Prison Inmates, Arrests, and Self-reports," American Economic Review, 94 (2004), 155-189.
  36. Ludwig, Jens, Greg J. Duncan, and Paul Hirschfield, "Urban Poverty and Juvenile Crime: Evidence from a Randomized Housing-Mobility Experiment," Quar- terly Journal of Economics, 116 (2001), 655-679.
  37. Ludwig, Jens, and Jeffrey R. Kling, "Is Crime Contagious?," Journal of Law and Economics, 50 (2007), 491-518.
  38. Machin, Stephen, Olivier Marie, and Suncica Vujic, "The Crime Reducing Effect of Education," Economic Journal, 121 (2011), 463-484
  39. Moffitt, Terrie E., "Adolescence-Limited and Life-Course-Persistent Antisocial Behavior: A Developmental Taxonomy," Psychological Review, 100 (1993), 674.
  40. Murnane, Richard J., John B. Willett, and Frank Levy, "The Growing Importance of Cognitive Skills in Wage Determination," Review of Economics and Statis- tics, 77 (1995), 251-266.
  41. Nagin, Daniel, and Richard E. Tremblay, "Trajectories of Boys' Physical Ag- gression, Opposition, and Hyperactivity on the Path to Physically Vio- lent and Nonviolent Juvenile Delinquency," Child Development, 70 (1999), 1181-1196.
  42. Oreopoulos, Philip, "Estimating Average and Local Average Treatment Effects of Education when Compulsory Schooling Laws Really Matter," American Economic Review, 96 (2006), 152-175.
  43. Richard J. Arnott and Daniel P. McMillen (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2007).
  44. Sacerdote, Bruce, "Peer Effects with Random Assignment: Results for Dartmouth Roommates," Quarterly Journal of Economics, 116 (2001), 681-704.
  45. Sah, Raaj K., "Social Osmosis and Patterns of Crime," Journal of Political Econ- omy, 99 (1991), 1272-1295.
  46. Sampson, Robert J., and John H. Laub, "Life-Course Desisters: Trajectories of Crime among Delinquent Boys Followed to Age 70," Criminology, 41 (2003), 555-592.
  47. Sampson, Robert J., Jeffrey D. Morenoff, and Thomas Gannon-Rowley, "Assessing 'Neighborhood Effects': Social Processes and New Directions in Research," Annual Review of Sociology, 28 (2002), 443-478.
  48. Sampson, Robert J., Stephen W. Raudenbush, and Felton Earls, "Neighborhoods and Violent Crime: A Multilevel Study of Collective Efficacy," Science, 277 (1997), 918-924.
  49. Sanbonmatsu, Lisa, Jeffrey R. Kling, Greg J. Duncan, and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, "Neighborhoods and Academic Achievement: Results from the Moving to Opportunity Experiment," Journal of Human Resources, 41 (2006), 649-691.
  50. Wolfgang, Marvin E., Robert M. Figlio, and Torstein Sellin, Delinquency in a Birth Cohort (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987).

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Deming, D. J.
Affiliations
Harvard University (US)
Corresponding author
Deming, David J.
ORCID
Deming, David J.
Venue
The Quarterly Journal of Economics
Publisher
Oxford University Press (OUP)
Published
2011-10-11
Volume
126
Issue
4
Pages
2063-2115
ISSN
  • 0033-5533 (ISSN-L)
  • 1531-4650
DOI
10.1093/qje/qjr036
OpenAlex
W1989740241
Cited by
373
References
3
Citations by year
2026: 19 · 2025: 25 · 2024: 15 · 2023: 29 · 2022: 26 · 2021: 26 · 2020: 18 · 2019: 43 · 2018: 27 · 2017: 34 · 2016: 23 · 2015: 22 · 2014: 23 · 2013: 15 · 2012: 10
FWCI
90.82
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • The Quarterly Journal of Economics (publishedVersion)
  • Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard (DASH) (Harvard University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Education › School Choice and Performance
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Crime Patterns and Interventions
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis
Keywords
school choice, school quality, crime, incarceration, peer effects, teacher quality, at-risk youth, long-term effects, junior high school, high schools

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review