Does Dropping Out of School Mean Dropping Into Delinquency?*

Abstract

Approximately one third of U.S. high‐school freshmen do not earn their high‐school diploma on time. For African‐American and Hispanic students, this figure nearly reaches one half. The long‐term economic consequences of dropping out of school for both the student and the larger community have been well documented. It has also been argued that school dropouts put themselves at a higher risk for delinquent and criminal behavior when they leave school. Although it seems plausible that dropping out might increase the potential for delinquent conduct, another view states that dropping out is simply the final event in a long, gradual process of disenchantment and disengagement from school. Dropouts show evidence of school failure and developmental problems years in advance. It has been argued, therefore, that the actual event of finally leaving school has no causal effect on criminal or delinquent behavior because it has been so long in coming. In this article, we examine the effect of leaving school early, and the reason for dropping out, on delinquent behavior with the use of panel data models from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 Cohort (NLSY97). Through an appeal to identity theory, we hypothesize that the effect of dropping out is not uniform but varies by the reason for leaving school, gender, and time. This conjecture receives only partial empirical support. Implications for future work in the area are discussed.

High School Dropout, Resource Attainment, and Criminal Convictions

“…Sweeten, Bushway, and Paternoster (2009) suggested that the identity associated with expected destinations after dropout also have implications for the dropout-crime link. For example, dropouts who expect to move on to positive identities such as permanent employment or marriage would not be at a greater risk for criminal activity.…”

“…The analysis focuses on the effect of finding a foothold in either the labor market or in education. Thus, we are also able to account for the fact that many dropouts re-enter high school ("stopouts"; see Sweeten, Bushway, and Paternoster 2009). …”

“…However, Hjalmarsson's results suggest a more robust effect of incarceration than of arrests. Sweeten, Bushway, and Paternoster (2009) listed a number of studies explicitly focused on the effect of school dropout on criminal behavior. The results from these are mixed.…”

“…The risk not only for outcomes such as poverty, social exclusion, and ill health but also for crime and delinquency is dramatically higher among youth who exit education before having reached an upper secondary/high school diploma. Sweeten, Bushway, and Paternoster (2009) reported that in the U.S. high school dropouts are more than 70 percent more likely to be unemployed than high school graduates and that their annual income is on average substantively lower than that of graduates. Their health is worse and, not least, they commit more crime.…”

Global Health and Vulnerability Factors of Minors in Police Custody: A Prospective Cohort Study

“…In the USA, between 16 and 27% of teenagers under the age of 18 have been placed in police custody on at least one occasion [8]. Delinquency is a wellestablished health risk factor, with a deleterious impact on scholastic, social, professional, and financial outcomes [9][10][11][12][13]. Teenagers with a police record are more likely to both inflict and to suffer from violence [14,15].…”