To further extend my California test score series, I decided to compare crime rates at a county level to test scores (English Grade 11) for all test takers.
Violent Crime Rate
[Un-weighted correlation: -0.38]
Homicide Rate
[Un-weighted correlation: -0.40]
Aggravated Assault Rate
[Unweighted correlation: -0.48]
Burglary Rate
[Unweighted correlation: -0.50]
Property Crime Rate
[Unweighted correlation: -0.19]
These correlations are significantly stronger with test scores than they are with overall county racial/ethnic demographics (e.g., percent black, percent white, etc), about 2x in fact, so I don’t think this is being driven purely by underlying differences in test scores between racial groups.
