Why do kids get into trouble on school days?

Previous literature highlights a robust relationship between schools and longer term criminal outcomes. The research presented here examines the short term effects of school being in-session on crime. We begin by confirming the findings of Jacob and Lefgren (2003) that teacher in-service days lead to a reduction in violent crime, consistent with a role for social interactions in school. We extend this result by showing that schools populated with more high crime risk students have larger decreases in crime on teacher in-service days but that this effect is reversed for schools with mostly low crime risk students. These results provide evidence that concentrating high crime risk students into particular schools increases local crime.