How would descent education decrease the number of crimes?

Question

A lot of people say that if young people are educated well, crime and murder numbers would decrease.

In what ways does education do that?

Answer 1

Let's face it... most crimes are committed by people who need money.  So they will steal to get it, sell drugs to get it, and even murder (life insurance, etc.) to get it.  The theory is that if everyone had a good education, they would have a good income and note commit crimes out of need.  This, of course, does not account for the greed factor.  However, I think we'd agree that if ANYONE in our country had the desire to go to college and get a degree, and that all college expenses were paid by the government through taxes, we'd see a lot less crime and more people in classrooms than behind bars.

Answer 2

A real education gives hope, and options for life.  There are a lot of young (and not so young) people out there who have no hope and no options -- at least, that's what they think, because the school system has failed them (I don't mean flunked, like repeat a grade, I mean totally let them down, didn't hold up their end of the bargain) -- so they think that crime is the only way to "make it" in the world.