Does Education Play a Role in Reducing Crime? Free Essay Example

Education holds a variety of purposes that affect the American people, one of which is the reduction of crime rates in this country. Education does not just teach academics but rather help improve children’s social skills, and responsibility at a young age. Kids also spend a great amount of their time at school and it’s socially proven that children will inherit the way they may act through what they are exposed to in their daily lives. There are known cases where parents will not dedicate there full time and attention to their children due to jobs and other factors they encounter.

Therefore juveniles will acquire their delinquent behavior from the group of friends they accept in school and look for role models to look up to where the teacher may play a role in the child’s life. ” Individuals who plan to heavily engage in crime, because of skills and exposure, to the lifestyle are likely to choose to leave school at a young age (Lochner 2004)”.

To add, most children will get discouraged if arrests or incarceration associated with the juvenile are due to crime and may cause some youths to drop out of school early (Hjalmarsson 2008).

However, there is an argument that the type of school can have advantages or disadvantages on the students, such as private schools that are more strict and concerned about how the students perform adequately in their day which teaches them “right and wrong” behavior. This may reduce crime, since the students are not exposed to a bad lifestyle and the kids there have a purpose to be in school hopefully since their parents paid for the top school quality.

On the other hand, public schools will have a mixture of students that attend regardless but they are all treated the same in the school system. Public schools will also punish if behavior is should issue due to juveniles, which may cause further incidents that can lead to crime. One study focused on 3 and 4 year old children that were enrolled in an education program for 12 years. The results found that children who did not participate in the preschool program, therefore missed out on an important opportunity for early childhood development. It shows that they were 70 percent more likely to be arrested for crime by the age of 18.

Therefore education plays a role in preventing crime by teaching the kids at a young age how to act socially in a public setting. Furthermore, as one grows older and encounters high school there are so many extra curricular activities and sports to get involved with which keeps them busy and does not leave time to think about committing crimes. High school is where most minors will be exposed to criminal activity but with the high expectations schools have now, their thoughts will turn towards what their future holds rather than wasting it by having fun one night.

School’s stress college and the path you will need to go through to have a successful future, which is a positive way of thinking for the young adults attending school. “In the U.S., the net annual burden of crime is estimated to exceed $1 trillionand roughly 60,000 juvenile offenders are in residential placement facilities”(Carson 2014).However school programs help these juveniles stay out of trouble since most of them may not have a stable home to go home to at the end of the day due to parents working or not being engaged in their lives. “According to the 2006 survey of California teens, nearly one million—three in 10 California 12- to 17-year-olds—are left unsupervised three or more days per week”. Therefore boys and girls after school clubs are receiving so much federal funding to better improve the program to keep these kids off the street. Education is not just sitting in a classroom and learning instead schools are reaching out for the children and engaging in their lives in a way parents may not by having programs and special activities to attend.

Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) is an education program that seeks to prevent use of controlled drugs, membership in gangs, and violent behavior. This program reduces crime by exposing children to the health and life long effects choices will have individuals. Normally a police officer will come in the classroom and educate the kids on the harsh choices one needs to avoid which in a way scares the kids which stops them in performing the criminal activities as they grow older. “Since 2009, intense evaluation of the curriculum has shown a decrease in substance abuse and reduction in negative attitudes/behaviors while improving positive attitudes/behaviors”, according to Sheriff Jimmy Combs. As longs as kids have something keeping them busy it will keep their mind off doing inappropriate things that lead to crime.

Also being involved in sports that schools offer will keep them in shape and fit. This will keep a positive self image of themselves and become disguntished with drugs and other substances that will dysfunction the way they perform in the sports they are playing. On the other hand, the individuals that decide to abuse their education in high school are more likely to perform criminal activities rather than those who complete school and extend to further education. Of all of the males in federal and state prisons,80 percent do not have a high school diploma. “One in ten male dropouts between the ages of 16 to 24 are either in prison or in juvenile detention”(Izza Chourdy), This is sad due to the fact that the criminal justice system would rather punish them than educate and rehabilitate them as they do in the juvenile system.

The education system is similar to the fact they are trying to educate the students while punishing them for the better good however some abuse the system to the limit that they give up and drop out. Emotions then can take over and leave the person no other option but to commit crime for personal preference or simply because they want to.” This confirms the statement that high school dropouts perform in criminal activities because they feel there is no other option. Every 26 seconds a child drops out of school and it is very hard to find a suitable job without education and therefore will lead one into stealing or dealing drugs to make money to live, since it is a easy way out to make money. This however is not a wise decision because it will just lead the individual to jail and prison and will then be responsible to the facility to take care of them.

Senior Victoria Melton said “Because they’re not a working member of society, they don’t know how to support themselves.” However prison time is not free, and it is the American people providing for these prisons who can not help themselves. “The national average for educating a student is $12,643, while the annual state average cost for housing an inmate is $28,323. ( Based on recent data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics) This shows how important it is to support education and give them funding for programs and classroom supplies, because if more efforts were put to education rather than incarceration there would be higher graduation rates and a drastic decrease in crime rates. In life today it is very hard to get a good income job with only a high school diploma, so it is near impossible to get one without any education.

“The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that dropouts bring in just $20,241 annually, which is $10,000 less than high school graduates and over $36,000 less than a person holding a bachelor’s degree”. However the government has a plan to help those who can not financially help themselves due to the choices they made in life. This controversial issue is not fair to those who are not committing crime and who received their education and stable job and provides for themselves. Most of the tax dollars that Americans pay go towards the criminal justice system and funding for prisons. If all of the dropouts from the class of 2011 had earned diplomas, the nation would benefit from an estimated $154 billion in income over their working lifetimes.

Overall, reducing the rates of high school dropouts would not only benefit the individual, but benefit the nation as a whole, by decreasing taxes, creating more jobs, and boosting the economy. To conclude, education is a key role in how a person will end up in their future, whether they are pursuing an active job and living a stable life or spending their time on the streets and in prison. School will provide for their students up to 18 years of their lives, but they can not force the kid’s to go there everyday. Those who abuse the opportunity will have their mind made up at a young age and will continue to do what they want even though it will lead to trouble. However if the American people engage more in the education system and care about students success, crime will decrease in result.

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