Affordable education a key to lower crime rates: Aust'n study

An injection of funding into affordable education can significantly reduce the crime rate among 16-44 year olds, a study has found.

The study, undertaken by a team from the University of Melbourne, found that drug crime, personal crime and property crime all decrease in an environment with easier access to affordable Vocational Education and Training (VET).

The report, Vocational Education and Training: A Pathway to the Straight and Narrow, found that among students with access to VET training the drug crime rate dropped 13 percent, property crime such as theft dropped 11 percent and personal crime such as assault dropped 5 percent.

"We found that for every extra dollar spent on VET, the community saved 18 cents in avoided crime costs, such as lost productivity, health and rehabilitation costs," report author Dr Cain Polidano said in a release on Wednesday.

"We already know that investment in vocational education has widespread economic benefits, including increased employment and earnings, but policy makers should take note of the flow on savings for the justice and health savings."

Polidano said that the finding by the report that VET participation reduces crime among mature-age groups (26-44) more than young people (16-25) is due to older people being more likely to make the most of affordable education.

"We see greater impacts for mature-age people because they are more likely to use increased opportunities in VET to find legitimate jobs," he said.

The findings come as Victoria Police struggles to fight a statewide crime wave with more than 500,000 felonies being committed in the state in 2015, a 12 percent increase on transgressions in 2014.

Approximately 56 percent of all crime committed in Victoria in 2015 was related to personal, property or drug crime. Endit