The Impacts of the Chicago Welcoming Schools' Safe Passage Program on Student Safety and Crime

Students' ability to succeed academically in the school setting depends heavily on factors that students face outside of the school walls. One such contributor is the presence of a safe environment for students to travel to and from school. Unfortunately, for many students in urban and economically depressed environments, the daily commute to and from school represents a risky undertaking riddled with potential violence and crime. The presence of such low-safety environments around schools has the potential to result in increased absenteeism as well as increased levels of stress among students, both of which contribute to decreased academic performance. The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of the Safe Passage program on crime around Chicago public schools. Specifically, the author seeks to answer the following research questions: (1) What is the effect of the Safe Passage program on the number of criminal incidents within the vicinity of CPS schools?; (2) Does the impact of the Safe Passage program on criminal incidents differ by crime type?; and (3) Does the Safe Passage program reduce criminal incidents around schools or redistribute criminal incidents within the vicinity surrounding schools? The Chicago Safe Passage program operates with the goal of increasing the safety of students as they travel to and from school. The data utilized for this study are drawn from both public data sources in addition to data generated uniquely for the purposes of this study. Data on crimes were acquired through the City of Chicago's Data Portal. Utilizing a difference-in-differences methodology, the author found that the Safe Passage Program reduces total crimes by approximately 0.15 standard deviations in the vicinity of a Safe Passage School. In the context of educational interventions, this effect size represents a reasonably large effect. Additionally, given the societal cost associated with crime, even small reductions in crime can produce reasonably large economic returns. Consistent with the location of the intervention, he found the largest reduction in crime to be among those occurring outside. A table is appended.