Educational inequality and juvenile crime: An area-based analysis
(2008) Ricardo Sabates, Leon Feinstein and Anirudh Shingal
Wider Benefits of Learning Research Report No.26
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This study considers the influence of one form of relative deprivation on crime, namely educational inequality. This is examined through an area-based analysis of the relationship between juvenile conviction rates for a range of offences and educational inequality based on maths Key Stage 3 scores in English local education authorities (LEAs).
Using aggregate area-level information from three cohorts of young people (born between 1983 and 1985) within each area, and controlling for other variables which might be supposed to have an effect on juvenile crime rates, we found that there is evidence of a relationship between educational inequality and juvenile conviction rates for violent crime within local areas (significant at the 10% level). There is a further relationship between educational inequality and racially motivated crime (significant at the 5% level). There was no significant relationship between our cohort-based measures of educational inequality and property-related crime
We believe that this report represents an important addition to the evidence base, providing robust evidence of an association between educational inequality and some forms of juvenile crime, notably violent and racially motivated crime.
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