{"id":617005,"date":"2026-09-07T07:30:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T07:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/617005\/"},"modified":"2026-09-07T07:30:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T07:30:14","slug":"irelands-financial-literacy-drive-may-have-another-pay-off-less-crime-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/617005\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland\u2019s financial literacy drive may have another pay-off: less crime \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Ireland recently appointed its first financial literacy ambassadors, with financial education set to play a role in the new savings and investment (SIA) account. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Could financial literacy also have an unexpected benefit: reducing crime?<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">A recent US study published in the Journal of Financial Economics suggests as much. It examined the effect of a compulsory financial education course introduced in Virginia schools, with the researchers comparing young people who just missed out on the course with those who received it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The difference was striking, with those who took the course 37 per cent less likely to commit financial crimes as young adults.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The effect was even more dramatic for embezzlement, where the reduction was more than 60 per cent.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph b-it-article-body__interstitial-link\">[\u00a0<a aria-label=\"Open related story\" class=\"c-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/crime-law\/2026\/06\/25\/garda-may-seek-legislative-change-to-address-backlog-of-more-than-60000-fraud-offences\/\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Garda may seek legislative change to address backlog of more than 60,000 fraud offencesOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The drop was especially obvious among people from poorer neighbourhoods, where they were 42 to 48 per cent less likely to commit a financial crime. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">There was no noticeable change among people from wealthier neighbourhoods. Why? Well, those who received the financial education were 51 per cent more likely to maintain a savings account; their assets allocated to the stock market nearly doubled; they also reduced their use of high-interest debt.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Financial literacy can reduce economic and financial \u201cconstraints\u201d, the researchers suggest. Put simply, better financial habits build a financial cushion, reducing the financial pressures that can contribute to crime.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Certainly, it\u2019s not as if financial education has some magical effect that makes people more law-abiding generally. The course had no significant effect on violent crime, drug offences, or vandalism. Its impact was concentrated on financial crime.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">For policymakers hoping to build a more financially literate population, then, the potential pay-off may extend well beyond helping people to become better savers and investors. It might also mean fewer criminals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ireland recently appointed its first financial literacy ambassadors, with financial education set to play a role in the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":617006,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-617005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=617005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617005\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/617006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=617005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=617005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=617005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}