@EdWorkingPaper{ai26-1578,
title = "Off the Books: School-Based Informal Diversion and Student and Community Outcomes",
author = "Jo R. King, Luis A. Rodriguez, Morgan Fleming",
number = "1578",
year = "2026",
month = "September",
URL = "http://www.edworkingpapers.com/ai26-1578",
abstract = {Efforts to reduce school-based arrest may reshape policing beyond school doors, yet their downstream effects are largely unknown. We study a New York City policy that encouraged informal diversion in place of arrest, using a difference-in-differences strategy. The probability of a juvenile crime record near a school fell by 6.9 percentage points---concentrated among misdemeanor offenses and female students--- likely independent of declines in school-based arrests. Yet, diversion increased by approximately 5 times more than arrests fell, consistent with net-widening. Within schools, suspensions increased despite unchanged behavior, suggesting schools substituted internal discipline for arrest. Attendance gains and test-score declines are suggestive.},
}