Education To Lower Crime Rate

3 Pages 835 Words

Why do we go to college? We go to get a better education. This leads to a better job, which leads to more money. This is the equation everyone uses and lives by in the world today. The real question that must be answered is can higher education lead to a lower crime rate. We would hope so for many reasons. The way I see it education is a deterrent. It gives people the opportunity to not need to fall into criminal activity.
First, if one has a higher education, the less likely one is to have to commit crimes. People usually commit crimes because of need for money for different reasons. Most people in college or with a college degree do not have that need. If they have obtained their education, most likely they have a job. This job gives them money to life off and they do not need to rob houses, liquor stores, or gas stations. Most burglaries of homes are to steal items such as jewelry, televisions, or stereos so that the criminal can sell the items in a pawn shop or on the street to get cash. On the same subject, thirty-four percent of abducted muggers say that they hold people up for their cash so they can have drug money.
An education at any level is expensive. If a person values their education that much, and is willing to pay that much money to go to school, I feel it is safe to say that they would not want to ruin it by committing crimes. Also if they can afford that type of expense, they really do not need to commit crimes, especially ones for money.
One would also like to assume that most college students and graduates were able to pay for and finish school because of help from their families. And this would not be true for everyone, but if the family can afford to send the child to college they have hopefully instilled basic morals and ethics, and the child would have no reason to get into illegal activities. Most people attending school right now know what they are majoring in and what they want to do when th...