Weiner, David, Lutz, Byron, & Ludwig, Jens
Researchers: Byron LutzDavid WeinerJens Ludwig
University Affiliation: University of Pennsylvania, University of Chicago
Email: wdavid@sas.upenn.edu
Research Question:
Estimate the effects of court-ordered school desegregation on crime.
Published: 1
Journal Name or Institutional Affiliation: NBER -National Bureau of Economics
Journal Entry: Working Paper 15380
Year: 2009
Findings:
- For Black youth, homicide victimization declines by around 25 percent when court orders are implemented and homicide arrests also decline significantly, which seem to be due at least in part to increased schooling attainment.
- Positive spillover effects to other groups, with beneficial changes in homicide involvement for Black adults and perhaps Whites as well.
- Imposition of these court orders in the nation’s largest school districts lowered the homicide rate to Black teens and young adults nationwide by around 13 percent, and might account for around one-quarter of the convergence in Black-White homicide rates over the period from 1970 to 1980.
- Findings provide suggestive support for the hypothesis that desegregation orders may have reduced victimization and offending among older Blacks by making younger Blacks less criminogenic and victimogenic.
- Find that education spending per child increases by around $175 per pupil (1990 dollars) following court desegregation orders, about 6 percent of the sample means of $2,750.