Abstract:
Purpose – The primary purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the impact of educational
attainment on crime rates across 33 Indian states over the period 2001 to 2013. This paper also examines the
role of various macroeconomic, socio-economic and demographic factors in determining the variation of crimes
in India.
Design/methodology/approach – First, this paper provides a representative theoretical model and
discusses the possible relationship between crime and education. Second, the paper applies a dynamic panel
data (DPD) model to extract more precise, unbiased and reliable estimates of the effect of education in abating
different crime rates. The main advantage of using the dynamic panel model is to address the problem of
endogeneity in some regressors and capture the time persistent effect of education on crime.
Findings – Empirical findings reveal that a 1% increase in gross enrolment ratio leads to the reduction of total
crime by 8%. However, a unique finding identifies a positive association between tertiary education and
economic crime. This finding further goes against the general belief that criminals tend to be less educated than
non-criminals.
Practical implications – This paper recommends that instead of punishment and mandatory law
enforcement for offenders, increase in government expenditure and different educational attainment ratios can
go a long way to combat crime in India, which has posed a serious threat to the stability of society. Furthermore,
utilizing the information on offenders’ educational attainment in examining the crime rates can be a future
research agenda for policymakers.
Originality/value – This study contributes to the empirical debate of ‘crime-education nexus’ by examining
the role of education on crime in India. This study is the first of its kind that focuses on the aspects of crime and
education more recently and investigates the relationship between crime and education due to the recent
changes in educational attainment ratios and crime rate.
