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Research Proposal: The Effects of Increasing the Length of School Days on Juvenile Crime

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Abstract

According to studies, school attendance rates impact juvenile crime rates (Reyes, 2020).

When children are away from school, they are exposed to a lot of factors that may predispose

them to crime. For instance, they may spend time with bad company, or they may engage in drug

use, promoting juvenile crime. In addition, time away from school negatively impacts the

learning process, leaving kids unprepared for the job market. In the event children are unable to

secure favorable jobs, it means they will have to settle for a life of crime. The objective of this

study will be to prove that school attendance rates impacts juvenile crime rates, in order to

recommend increased school day hours as a means of preventing juvenile crime. By spending

more time in school, children will stay away from crime, ensuring they develop into responsible

citizens. They will have little unsupervised time, meaning that their likelihood of engaging in

crime will drop.

Introduction

The study will aim to determine the impact of school attendance on juvenile crime rates.

As per the United States Department of Justice, truancy is a major problem affecting public

schools in the nation (Reyes, 2020). The issue deserves attention since truancy is often a gateway

to sinister crimes, which have adverse effects on the American society. In itself, truancy is a

crime, and it qualifies as a form of delinquent behavior. In addition, when children skip school,

they expose themselves to a wide range of criminalistics tendencies that later impact their lives

and their societies. For instance, children may skip school to engage in behaviors such as

substance abuse, juvenile sex, drug trafficking, and gang related activities (Anderson, 2014).

Therefore, by evaluating whether school attendance impacts juvenile crime rates, the research

will show whether increasing the length of the school day will have a positive impact on juvenile

crime rates. Presently, the study posits that school attendance affects crime rates among

juveniles. Therefore, it will establish how children are affected, as well as what society can do to

rectify the problem.

Literature review

When children are in school, a lot of good things happen. They excel in academia,

develop good social skills, and they also learn how to function harmoniously within social

contexts (Northern, 2021). However, when they miss school, they develop in negative ways. The

time they could have spent learning or socializing with their peers is wasted on non-productive

endeavors, which are often not in line with legal requirements. Presently, efforts to keep children

focus on absenteeism.
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Ideally, children may miss school for a variety of reasons. They may be ill, caring for

other family members, or they be uninterested in school activities (Northern, 2021). The focus of

the study will be on the deliberate skipping of school, which tends to have a lot of negative

impacts on students since they are preoccupied with sinister deeds, which compel them to engage

in crime. When students miss school deliberately, they engage in truancy, which counts as a form

of juvenile crime (Reyes, 2020).

Although the American government has made efforts to reduce truancy, the problems still

seems to persist. Through the inclusion of punitive measures, the nation has attempted to reduce

truancy, efforts which have given no fruits (Reyes, 2020). Therefore, it means that the country

must up its game to ensure compulsory school attendance, so as to minimize the rate of crime

among juveniles.

When children miss school, they are bound to engage in behaviors that destroy the

nation’s society. For instance, the children may engage in drug use, significantly impacting their

academic performance, and promoting illegal activities in the process (Anderson, 2014).

Alternatively, students may engage with nefarious persons or gangs, who may compel them to

engage in illegal activities. Aside from the crimes the students engage in directly when they miss

school, it is also pertinent to assess how truancy may predispose them to a future of crime.

According to studies, high school attendance is significantly correlated to satisfactory

academic performance. That is because when students are in school, they engage in activities that

are beneficial to their learning. The students are able to get motivation, engage with the

necessary course content, learn about time management skills, as well as socialize with others in

their learning environment (Newman-Ford, 200). Ideally, academic excellence is essential for a
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successful life, and students who miss schools are likely to experience challenges in the job

market (Anderson, 2014).

Even when they are willing to employ themselves, students who miss school experience

significant challenges since they lack the essential discipline necessary for success. Without

proper employment or a vocation to generate honest income, persons find themselves engaging

in dubious activities to make ends meet (Garry, 1996). Therefore, persons who miss school are

more likely to engage in crime since it becomes their last resort when it comes to making a

living.

Although consistent school performance does not promise academic excellence, students

who attend school regularly have better life prospects than those who miss school (Newman-

Ford et al., 2008). That is because school can help students develop skills that may allow them to

live honestly in the future. For instance, students who are adept in sports may develop their skills

in school, opening doorways to promising career paths in the future. The same applies for

students who have talents in music, acting, and potentially art.

Given that high school attendance ensures better academic and life performance,

educational institutions have implemented various measures over the past to improve attendance

rates. For instance, some schools have used electronic attendance monitoring systems, which

according to studies, play an imperative role in promoting student attendance (Colby, 2004).

Electronic attendance monitoring systems are essential because they make it difficult for students

to miss school deliberately.

As Reyes puts it, students may miss school for a variety of reasons. They may be sick, or

they may have to look after their siblings or ailing family members (Reyes, 2008). Regardless, it
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is those who miss school deliberately that create challenges for the criminal justice system. As

such, given that there will be electrical records for school performance, it will be easy for school

administrations to pinpoint students who miss school deliberately, so that they can develop more

individual-centered measures to promote attendance (Colby, 2004). Given that punitive policies

are yet to produce positive results with regards to attendance, perhaps student-centered

approaches will provide the best outcomes.

Pertinent to this study, is whether the length of school attendance is interrelated with

juvenile crime rates. Of course, children who skip school are more likely to engage in crime, but

do the current learning hours affect juvenile crime rates? Do students have too much free time

that they find themselves engaging in delinquent behavior? When students are not in school, they

expose themselves to the same factors that make truant students develop criminalistics traits, and

it is imperative to discern whether the current school attendance periods require amendments, to

ensure students spend more hours in school.

According to the Fischer and Argyle, the length of time students spend in school impacts

their predisposition to crime (2018). After testing the impact of a four-day school week on

juvenile crime rates in the area of Colorado, the researchers establish that such a system

increases juvenile crime rates by approximately 20% (Fischer & Argyle, 2018). The researchers

indicate that when children spend more time away from school, their predisposition to engage in

property crime increases. Therefore, in line with the hypothesis of this study, it may be essential

for schools to increase study hours to ensure children abstain from crime.

Ideally, the study by Fischer and Argyle are essential since they show another factor that

affects delinquency rates among juveniles. The factor is; supervision during crime peak hours
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(Fischer & Argyle, 2018). The period between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. is when it is most favorable for

juveniles to engage in criminalistics behaviors, meaning that schools must ensure they are

supervised during such hours. By increasing the length of hours students spend in school, they

will have less time to engage in crime, ensuring they develop appropriately into citizens capable

of benefiting society.

Although increasing schooling hours will help minimize juvenile crime rates, the study

will be incomplete if it fails to identify factors that contribute to truancy. The factors that

contribute to truancy are essential since they are the ones that determine whether students will

follow the revised attendance periods. Truants skip school deliberately, and studies indicate that

not even punitive measures improve their rate of attendance (Reyes, 2020). Therefore, schools

must understand the factors that contribute to truancy so that they can create conducive

environments that will promote attendance.

According to academic evidence, strict disciplinary measures may be at blame for

causing truancy (Rocque et al., 2017). The study indicates that cruel punitive measures affect

student academic performance, causing them to develop issues with their learning institution.

The poor academic performance has damaging effects, since it causes students to lose touch with

their school, impacting their attendance rate. According to evidence from the study, students who

lacked academic concentration, or faced disciplinary issues were more truant (Rocque et al.,

2017). Therefore, schools must consider their disciplinary measures before incorporating long

study hours so as to not create more truants.

The study by Rocque et al. (2017) also shows that educators must reconsider their means

of delivering instructions to students. That is because students who perform dismally are more
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likely to get disengaged, making them prone to truancy. With poor teaching methods, a lot of

students may feel disengaged, resulting in increased instances of truancy. Therefore, teachers

must motivate their students to perform better, as well as use student-centered approaches to

learning that will ensure no student is left behind.

Efforts to improve school attendance so as to do away with juvenile crime will also

necessitate the development of intervention methods that target students who are already truant.

One of the biggest contributing factor to truancy is drug and substance abuse (Enberg & Morral,

2006). After conducting a research to evaluate whether reducing substance abuse among

adolescents improves school attendance, researchers found out that the two are indeed related.

When Enberg and Morral enrolled students who use and abuse drugs for a treatment program,

they realized an inverse relationship between drug use and school attendance (2006). That is,

when students reduced their intake of drugs, their attendance levels improved.

The study realized that drugs such as marijuana, alcohol, hallucinogens, stimulants, as

well as sedatives, have negative impacts on school attendance rates (Enberg & Morral, 2006).

Therefore, the study indicates that improving school attendance among students will require the

development of treatment programs to assist students who have addiction issues. In addition,

students must be taught to abstain from drug use when they are still young, and that must be

complemented with long schooling hours to ensure their accessibility to intoxicants is limited.

By increasing their study hours, they will not be free during crime peak hours, minimizing their

ability to engage in truant activities.

Socioeconomic factors also impact school attendance rates. That is because regions with

poor socioeconomic levels have higher instances of truancy compared to affluent neighborhoods
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(Smith, 2013). Because low income neighborhoods are riddled with crime, drugs, and other

social vices, students find it difficult to remain in school. According to the Broken Windows

theory, a community that outwardly shows its ill is likely to develop ill-mannered citizens

(source). That is because negative influences in such societies have detrimental impacts on child

development, making future generations more prone to engage in crime.

Given that marginalized communities such as African Americans and Hispanics make up

the majority of the urban slum populations, they are indeed vulnerable, and intervention

programs must focus on improving their school attendance. Different from such communities,

persons from affluent neighborhoods are more likely to have better school attendance. That is

because their backgrounds do not condone behaviors such as truancy (Patton et al., 2012). As

such, intervention programs must focus on improving the quality of life in low-income

communities so as to encourage school attendance among their populace.

Given that backgrounds also affect academic performance, persons from low-income

communities have a higher chance of dropping out and engaging in crime (Bowen & Bowen,

1999). Due to challenges such as high crime rates and difficult access to social amenities,

persons from low-income backgrounds fail to concentrate in school, resulting in their eventual

dropout.

Methodology

Through a comparative longitudinal mixed method analysis, the research will attempt to

establish whether increasing the length of school days will reduce juvenile crime rates. The study

will rely on both qualitative and quantitative data to evaluate the essence of increasing the length

of the school days. Qualitative data will be collected from teachers, students, and parents through
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a questionnaire to determine the public’s perspectives with regards to the proposed solution.

Ideally, the study will be longitudinal to measure perspectives at the start and at the end of the

intervention program.

The study is longitudinal since it will focus on data spanning a period of five years.

Through primary and secondary resources, the research will collect quantitative juvenile crime

data as well as school attendance rates to establish whether increased school attendance periods

positively impact crime rates. Through the use of statistical formulas, the study will establish

whether the two are interrelated as postulated by the literature review. For the qualitative part of

the study, the sample group will be selected randomly from different public schools in the nation.

A total of a hundred questionnaire interviews for each of the sample groups will be enough for

the study to reach a point of saturation. When it comes to the quantitative evidence, the primary

and secondary sources will be selected from credible academic repositories, governmental and

organizational websites to help prove the thesis statement.

Conclusion

Ideally, the goal of the study will be to prove that increasing the length of school days

will reduce juvenile crime rates. Through the literature review, it appears as though length of

school days and juvenile crime rates are interrelated. That is because when children spend a lot

of time from school, they are likely to engage in shady activities that may land them on the

wrong side of the law. Understanding the interrelation between the two is essential since it will

help in the creation of a more stable society. When the nation can prevent juvenile crime, they

help make society safe since persons who would have grown up to become criminals will get the

opportunity to stay in school, prompting them to become useful members of society. Essentially,
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juvenile crime is the doorway to more pronounced criminalistics activities, and it is imperative

for society to find a way to deal with juvenile crime.

References

Bowen, N., & Bowen, G. (1999). Effects of Crime and Violence in Neighborhoods and Schools

on the School Behavior and Performance of Adolescents. Journal of Adolescent

Research Vol 13 (3), 319-342.

Engberg, J., & Morral, A. R. (2006). Reducing substance use improves adolescents’ school

Attendance. Addiction (Abingdon, England), 101(12), 1741–1751.

https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1360-0443.2006.01544.x

Rocque, M., Jennings, W. G., Piquero, A. R., Ozkan, T., & Farrington, D. P. (2017). The

Importance of School Attendance: Findings from the Cambridge Study in Delinquent

Development on the Life-Course Effects of Truancy. Crime and Delinquency, 63(5), 592–612.

https://doi.org/10.1177/0011128716660520

Reyes, A. (2020). Compulsory School Attendance: The New American Crime. Education

Sciences, 10(3), 75–. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci10030075

Anderson, D. M. (2014). In school and out of trouble: The minimum dropout age and juvenile

Crime. The Review of Economics and Statistics, 96(2), 318–331.

https://doi.org/10.1162/REST_a_00360

Newman-Ford, L., Fitzgibbon, K., Lloyd, S., & Thomas, S. (2008). A large-scale investigation

Into the relationship between attendance and attainment: a study using an innovative, electronic

attendance monitoring system. Studies in Higher Education (Dorchester-on-Thames), 33(6), 699–

717. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075070802457066
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Fischer, S., & Argyle, D. (2018). Juvenile crime and the four-day school week. Economics of

Education Review, 64, 31–39. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econedurev.2018.03.010

Smith, D. L. (2013). The Impact of Neighborhood Violent Crime on School Attendance.

ProQuest Dissertations Publishing.

Garry, E. M. (1996). Truancy: First Step to a Lifetime of Problems. U.S. Department of Juvenile

Justice Bulletin, 1–8.