PART III: Interpreting the Data: 13: Incentives to Fail II: Crime and Education.

This section discusses the effect of changes in incentives on crime and education in the U.S. during the 1960s. Crime occurs when the prospective benefits sufficiently outweigh the prospective costs. From 1961 through 1969, the number of prisoners in federal and state facilities dropped every year. The risk of arrest and risk of punishment each dropped independently. By 1970, the poor person had acquired an array of protections and stratagems that were formerly denied him. These changes extended the practice of equal treatment under the law. They also made crime less risky for poor people who were inclined to commit crimes if they thought they could get away with them. In many states, laws were passed that provided for sealing the juvenile court record, tightening existing restrictions to the juvenile record, or, in sixteen states by 1974, purging or expunging it, destroying the physical evidence that the youth had ever been in trouble with the courts. The purpose of such acts was to ensure that a youth who acquired a record as a juvenile could grow up without the opprobrium of a police record following him through life. In 1960, school sanctions consisted of holding a student back, in-school disciplinary measures, suspension, and expulsion.