Birmingham Law Enforcement: Dropout Rates Fueling Violent Crime

Contact: Ted Eismeier, ted@fightcrime.org
Desk: 202-464-5350

Birmingham Chief A.C. Roper, Jefferson County Sheriff Mike Hale, and Jefferson County District Attorneys David Barber and Brandon Falls held a special “Back to School” news conference today at George Washington Carver High School addressing the problem of high school dropouts and the connection between graduation rates and violent crime and murder.

The Birmingham law enforcement leaders are members of Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, a national anti-crime organization made up of 4,000 police chiefs, sheriffs, district attorneys, and violence survivors. The group released a report, entitled “School or the Streets,” showing that high quality pre-kindergarten has the greatest impact on reducing the country’s rising dropout rate.

“Increasing the availability of state pre-kindergarten, Head Start and quality childcare for all eligible kids is a sure step to reducing crime and preventing drop outs.” District Attorney Barber said. “If we don’t, we risk writing off a segment of the population and consigning them to a life of crime.”

In Birmingham, over half of high school students fail to graduate on time. Nearly 70 percent of all inmates in state prisons failed to earn a high school diploma. Research shows that high school dropouts are three and a half times more likely than graduates to be arrested and eight times more likely to be incarcerated.

“There is no question that education, or a lack of it, has a tremendous impact on crime,” Sheriff Hale said. “It is a proven fact that dropout rates directly correlate with crime statistics. We have to find a way to keep our young people in school. If we do that we will definitely see a dramatic drop in criminal activity.”

The report shows that increasing graduation rates by 10 percentage points will prevent 76 murders and 2,093 assaults in Alabama each year.

“It is time to fully fund state pre-kindergarten and Head Start and in turn, cut our crime levels,” Roper said. “Far too often today’s dropouts are tomorrow’s criminals.”

Long-term benefits of early childhood education and care include higher graduation rates, college enrollment and income levels, as well as significant reductions in crime. A study of Chicago’s Child-Parent Centers, a high-quality early education program, showed that kids left out of the program were 70% more likely to have been arrested for a violent crime by age 18 than those who participated in the program.

“All to often, young people appear as defendants in trials,” incoming District Attorney Brandon Falls said. “I would much rather see them in a graduation gown than an orange jump suit.”

To read the entire report, click here.

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