Learning in Harm’s Way: Neighborhood Violence, Inequality, and American Schools

Is a school's geographic proximity to violent crime related to characteristics of its student body and to students' academic performance? Our understanding of the educational impacts of students' exposure to violence has been constrained because of various technical and financial limitations that have made research in this area problematic. The work presented here leverages advances in the availability of geo-coded data on incidents of crime to overcome the limitations of prior research in this area, showing that a school's proximity to violent crime is associated with common measures of educational inequality and also with school performance. We discuss the implications of our findings for future research and public policy.