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Title: What is the Effect of Dropping Out of High School on Delinquency?
Resulting in 1 citation.
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Gasper, Joseph Michael |
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What is the Effect of Dropping Out of High School on Delinquency? Presented: Montreal, QC, American Sociological Association Annual Meetings, August 11-14, 2006 Cohort(s): NLSY97 Publisher: American Sociological Association Keyword(s): Crime; Delinquency/Gang Activity; Education; Heterogeneity; High School Dropouts; Modeling, Fixed Effects Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. Previous research on the relationship between dropping out of high school and subsequent involvement in delinquency has yielded ambiguous results. This study seeks to improve upon prior studies in three ways: (1) by controlling for possible selection effects, (2) by examining how other factors may serve to condition the effects of dropping out on delinquency, including postschool factors, and (3) by exploring differences between temporary and permanent dropouts. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97), I examine the causal effect of dropping out on delinquency. I conduct two types of analyses. In the first analysis, ordinary least-squares (OLS) regression models address selection effects by controlling for observed differences between dropouts and youths in school. Results largely replicate those of recent research. In the second analysis, fixed effects models control for unobserved heterogeneity. Results indicate that although dropping out for school reasons and for other, unspecified reasons are associated with higher levels of involvement in delinquency, dropping out does not cause an increase in offending. The observed relationships are spurious due to preexisting differences between dropouts and youth in school. Dropping out contributes little to the explanation of changes in delinquency across time. Dropping out for economic reasons is associated with a decrease in offending only after controls for between-person variation are included, suggesting a protective effect of dropping out to work. I conclude with implications and suggestions for future research. |
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Bibliography Citation
Gasper, Joseph Michael. "What is the Effect of Dropping Out of High School on Delinquency?" Presented: Montreal, QC, American Sociological Association Annual Meetings, August 11-14, 2006. |