TY  - JOUR
AU  - Weiner,David A.
AU  - Lutz,Byron F.
AU  - Ludwig,Jens
TI  - The Effects of School Desegregation on Crime
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 15380
PY  - 2009
Y2  - September 2009
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w15380
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w15380.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
David A. Weiner
University of Pennsylvania
3718 Locust Walk
McNeil Building
Philadelphia, PA 19140
E-Mail: wdavid@sas.upenn.edu

Byron Lutz
Federal Reserve Board of Governors
Research Division
20th and C Streets, NW
Washington, DC 20551-0001
http://byron.marginalq.com/
E-Mail: Byron.F.Lutz@frb.gov

Jens Ludwig
University of Chicago
1155 East 60th Street
Chicago, IL 60637
Tel: 773/834-0811
Fax: 773/834-1582
E-Mail: jludwig@uchicago.edu
AB  - One of the most striking features of crime in America is its disproportionate concentration in disadvantaged, racially segregated communities, which has long raised concern that segregation itself may contribute to criminal behavior. Yet little is known about whether government efforts to reduce segregation can reduce crime. We address this question by studying the most important large-scale policy to reduce segregation in American life - court-ordered school desegregation. Our research design exploits variation across large urban school districts in the timing of when they were subject to local Federal court orders to desegregate. We find that for black youth, homicide victimization declines by around 25 percent when court orders are implemented; homicide arrests decline significantly as well. We also find evidence for spillover effects on other age and race groups, consistent with data indicating a sizable amount of offending across groups and with the fact that offending by different groups is also linked through the police budget constraint. Economic models for a "market for offenses" suggest the influence of this second mechanism should attenuate over time as victims respond to a shift in the supply of offenses by reducing investments in crime prevention. Consistent with this theory, we find police spending declines several years after court desegregation orders are enacted. The only detectable life-course-persistent effects are found among birth cohorts that attended desegregated schools. 
ER  -