Introduction

Looking at Maryland as a state, Baltimore city has the most dense area of schools but is also known for its high crime rate. For this reason I decided to look closer at the city and how the juvenile crime rate compares to the involvement in dropout rate and school or employment. Great Schools [1] rate the Baltimore school system very low compared to the rest of the state. 82% of the schools in the county are rated “below average” and only 3% of the schools are rated “above average.” All of this data is pulled from the year 2012.

Hypothesis

I believe that in areas where there is a higher arrest rate of juveniles that there will be a correlation of lower percentage of students in school or employed. This means I am predicting that in areas that have a lot of juvenile arrests, there will be less involvement in school or the work environment, and a higher percentage of dropouts.

Maryland as a State

This map shows the highschools in Maryland, including schools that are middle and highschools combined. You can tell that there is a large hot spot of schools in the Baltimore city area, and another high density area is the surrounding area of DC.

Percent of Juveniles in School or Employed

Taking a closer look we can see Baltimore city broken up into neighborhoods. This map shows the percent of juveiles in school or employed in 2012. South Baltimore sticks out the most with 37.04% of their youth in school or employed. This could be because South Baltimore is where the inner harbor is and there are not many schools in the area. [4]

Baltimore City High School Drop Out Rates

This map shows the dropout rates of 9th through 12 graders in 2012 that dropped out of public high school. This map shows a high drop out rate for the South East of Baltimore with Orangeville having the higest dropout rate with 10.86%. [2]

Baltimore City Juvenile Crime Arrest Rates

It is clear that the center of town has the highest level of crime in the city in juveniles and dissipates out as you get to the edges of the city. This data represents the arrest rate per 1000 Juveniles. You can see that the highest arrest rate is Downtown / Seton Hill and the Inner Harbor. [3]

Conclusion

In conclusion I didn’t find any definate correlations between neighborhoods between arrest rates, dropout rates, and the percentage of juveniles employed or in school. What was a common theme was the south of Baltimore was more likely to have juvenile arrests and lower attendance in school. I found it interesting that the highest drop out rates were south east Baltimore. I would love to do more research to discover why that is and why it is not in the more central parts of the city.

I believe that education is super important and it is sad to see that some areas cannot support the community of students and that results in high dropout rates.

References

[1] https://www.greatschools.org/maryland/baltimore/baltimore-city-public-schools/

[2]https://data.baltimorecity.gov/datasets/bniajfi::high-school-dropout-withdrawl-rate?geometry=-77.058%2C39.192%2C-76.183%2C39.378

[3]https://data.baltimorecity.gov/datasets/bniajfi::juvenile-arrest-rate-per-1000-juveniles?geometry=-77.103%2C39.192%2C-76.138%2C39.378

[4]https://data.baltimorecity.gov/datasets/bniajfi::percentage-of-population-aged-16-19-in-school-and-or-employed-community-statistical-area?geometry=-77.103%2C39.192%2C-76.138%2C39.378