New Report: Juvenile Arrest and Collateral Educational Damage in the Transition to Adulthood

A new report by David S. Kirk and Robert J. Sampson highlights the impact of juvenile arrest on completion of high school and how it alters life trajectories around work and family.

The report concludes:

With high school and even college graduation virtually a necessity for a successful transition to adulthood, we conclude that the evidence comes down on the side of viewing juvenile arrest as a life-course trap in the educational pathways of a considerable number of adolescents in contemporary American cities. That this snare appears to work independently of a number of traditionally hypothesized mechanisms raises troubling questions about the interaction of the criminal justice and educational systems.

You can download the full report from the Sociology of Education Journal here.