Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

We investigate the impact of career counseling services in high school on youth crime. To do so, we study the impact of Career Compass of Louisiana, which provides counseling services to students regarding college admissions, enrollment, financial aid, and career exploration. We use a difference-in-differences framework to analyze administrative student-level data from the Louisiana Department of Education and individually matched administrative crime data from the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections and the Office of Juvenile Justice. We find that the Career Compass program in Louisiana reduced youth crime by over 4 percent in treated districts. Moreover, the effect is more pronounced for students with low test scores, students receiving free and reduced cost lunch, male and minority students. Our estimates are robust to different specifications and placebo tests.