In this study, we propose and test a mechanism for the effect of neighborhood of residence on school outcomes: absenteeism that results from exposure to danger on the way to school. We first determine the most efficient route to school using public transportation for 4,200 first-time freshmen in Baltimore City public high schools. Then, we link the specific streets along the most efficient route to incident-level crime data from the Baltimore Police Department. We find that students whose estimated routes require walking along streets with higher violent-crime rates have higher rates of absenteeism throughout the year. We also show that absenteeism is not associated with exposure to dangerous streets while riding on public transit and exposure to property crime.These conclusions hold with and without adjustments for student demographic characteristics, prior school attendance, violent crime around homes and schools, and unobserved differences related to school preference and neighborhood selection.

中文翻译：

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上学途中的危险：暴力犯罪，公共交通和旷工

在这项研究中，我们提出并测试了居住区对学校成绩的影响的机制：旷课是由于上学途中面临危险而造成的。首先，我们为巴尔的摩市公立高中的4200名新入学新生确定了最有效的上学路线。然后，我们将最有效路线上的特定街道与巴尔的摩警察局的事件级犯罪数据关联起来。我们发现，预计路线需要沿着暴力犯罪率较高的街道行走的学生全年的缺勤率较高。我们还表明，旷工与乘坐公共交通工具时暴露于危险街道和暴露于财产犯罪无关。