Violence in and around schools has drawn increasing attention lately from both the public and policymakers. Despite the importance of the problem, however, research on this topic has been limited. In this paper I analyze how local violence affects high school graduation and college attendance. Using data from the High School and Beyond survey, I find that local violence has important effects. Moderate levels of violence reduce the likelihood of high school graduation by 5.1 percentage points on average, and lower the likelihood that a student will attend college by 6.9 percentage points.

Jeffrey Grogger is a professor of economics at the School of Public Policy and Social Research at the University of California-Los Angeles and a coeditor of the Journal of Human Resources. He thanks Nick Ronan, Steve Trejo, three referees, the editor, and participants at the NBER Summer Institute for helpful comments. The data used in this article can be obtained May 1998 through April 2001 from the author, School of Public Policy and Social Research, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095.