The paper established a causal link between education and crime by looking at the crime rates of school-leavers that were forced to stay on an extra year in British schools because of a legal change to the school-leaving age. This group was less likely to engage in criminal behaviour than the previous year cohort. The paper estimates that the cost of a year's extra schooling is outweighed by the benefits in terms of less crime - writes John O'Sullivan.
made: 2010-04-07
