Male students more likely to commit crimes

BOSTON, Aug. 5 (UPI) -- Men who attend college are more likely to commit property crimes during their college years than their non-college-attending peers, U.S. researchers said.

Sociologists at Bowling Green State University found that youth planning to go to college report lower levels of criminal activity and substance use during adolescence compared to non-college-bound youth. However, levels of drinking, property theft and unstructured socializing with friends increase among the college-bound after enrollment at a four-year university -- and they surpass the rates of less-educated peers.

"College attendance is commonly associated with self-improvement and upward mobility, yet this research suggests that college may actually encourage, rather than deter, social deviance and risk-taking," primary investigator Patrick M. Seffrin, a research assistant at the Center for Family and Demographic Research at Bowling Green State University, said in a statement.

A sample of 9,246 respondents from grades 7 through 12 was initially surveyed during the 1994 to 1995 academic year, with the following two survey waves taking place in 1996 and 2001. The study defined "college students" or "college-bound youth" as respondents who were enrolled full-time in a four-year college for at least 12 months by the third wave of the survey.

The study was presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association in Boston.