The effects of Brazil’s basic education reform on juvenile crime.

Abstract

This thesis aims to analyze the relation of education on the juvenile crime committed by 14-year-olds. We use a change in compulsory schooling law passed in Brazil in 2006 that anticipated the entry of youths in the first grade of elementary school. According to the law, new students must be enrolled in this grade at the age of six instead of seven. We argue that a change in the curriculum rather than an extra year of schooling may correlate with crimes. We analyze whether municipalities with a higher proportion of 14-year-olds in this new system reveal changes in criminal outcomes. Although previous literature suggest that this policy has a positive effect on students’ academic performance due to improvements in Mathematics and Portuguese scores, which may discourage delinquent behavior, our results indicate a positive correlation between the policy and crime. Estimates show a positive relation between auto thefts committed by 14-year-olds and policy expansion. The results by gender also point to an increase in this crime for both, with greater magnitude for males. Furthermore, our findings evidence that delinquent behavior persists among youths aged 15-17, especially drug dealing. Despite our robustness tests provide additional evidence of the positive relation between crime and the policy expansion, our estimates are still a first investigation that indicates only a correlation between the new policy and criminal outcomes.