Integrated vs. differentiated school systems and their impact on delinquency

Abstract

The Swiss school system is based on selectivity and classification. From a relatively young age, students are assigned to levels leading to different professional orientations, from apprenticeship to university. Using data from the Swiss ISRD-2 (Second International Self-Reported Delinquency Study), this study analyses the link between Swiss schools and delinquency, as measured by prevalence in the 12 months before filling out the questionnaire. Three dependent variables with large prevalence rates were considered: shoplifting, vandalism and a composite variable, all offences. The results were generated using two analytical methods, controlling for sociodemographic and individual characteristics and variables related to the family and the neighbourhood. The analyses reveal that being in the lowest track either in the school itself or in the school system is not related to increased risk of delinquency.

Does vocational schooling facilitate criminal offending? A study of educational tracking in Finland

“…Relevant European research is limited to two cross-sectional studies of self-reported delinquency. Research using data from Switzerland finds that track position is not an important proximate correlate of delinquency (Egli, Lucia and Berchtold, 2012). Contrary to expectations, some of the analyses suggest that lower track may even be associated with reduced levels of vandalism and shoplifting.…”

Context is Key

“…This finding indicates that students comparable in terms of perceived school disorganization, bonding, motivation and exposure to specific peer influences are better protected against developing offending behaviour in higher tracks than in mixed and lower tracks. These findings about the effect of school system on offending contradict previous research by Wiatrowski et al (1982) and Egli et al (2012). An explanation could be that our study focused on eight different countries, whereas both other studies were single-country studies.…”

“…As school and teacher bonding are highly correlated (Allen et al, 2016) and bonding as such was shown to be associated with more socially conforming behavior, tracked school systems could also promote prosocial behavior in lower-tracked students. This would be more in line with research that finds no evidence for negative effect of tracking in terms of delinquent behavior (Wiatrowski et al, 1982) or even a protective effect by lowering probability of certain types of delinquent offending as compared to being in higher tracks (Egli et al, 2012).…”

“…The few studies that examined the influence of school system on delinquent behavior mainly focused on differences between school systems (e.g. Egli et al, 2012;Van Houtte & Stevens, 2008;Wiatrowski et al, 1982) or differential effects on subgroups within lower tracks (e.g. boys versus girls, see Savolainen et al, 2013).…”