NCJ Number
112849
Date Published
1987
Length
21 pages
Annotation
This report summarizes a study of delinquency and crime from childhood through early adulthood for 123 youths born each year between 1958 and 1962 in one neighborhood of Ypsilanti, Mich., based on both self-report data and official records of juvenile and adult involvement in the criminal justice system.
Abstract
The neighborhood consisted predominantly of low-income black families. Children with IQ's between 60 and 80 and no evidence of organic handicap were selected for the study. Subjects were randomly assigned to a group that went to preschool and another that did not. Overall, preschool was associated with a reduction in the proportion of persons ever arrested or charged, from 51 percent to 31 percent. Preschool also had a favorable impact on school success, earnings and employment, and teenage pregnancy. Under conservative assumptions, early education more than pays for itself in returns to society. Study results argue for the broad extension of early educational interventions to low-income children and other persons at risk for educational failure. 4 tables, 1 figure, and 39 references.