The Great Leveler? Juvenile Arrest, College Attainment, and the Future of American Inequality

• In Event: 40225 - Mechanisms of Inequality

Abstract

A burgeoning literature suggests that criminal justice contact in adolescence hinders educational attainment, but prior research primarily considers short-term outcomes and relies on self-reported arrest information. In this paper, we leverage Illinois administrative records over 25 years linked to a multi-cohort longitudinal study to provide the first estimates of whether an officially recorded juvenile arrest lingers beyond high school through college completion. We find that juvenile arrest is associated with a 20-30 percentage point decrease in one’s likelihood of graduating from a four-year college. This association persists for college enrollees and is consistent across socio-demographic groups and birth cohorts. Given the unequal and prevalent nature of juvenile arrest, the association’s durability across time periods characterized by vast social-structural changes, and the potentially unique vulnerabilities of system-involved students on college campuses, our study offers new insights on how official legal entanglement prior to adulthood may contribute to inequality in the US.

Authors

• Garrett Baker, Duke University

• David S. Kirk, University of Pennsylvania

• Robert J. Sampson, Harvard University