The U.S. Student Loan Debt Crisis: State Crime or State-Produced Harm?

Abstract

The unprecedented US$1.64 trillion level of student loan debt in the United States can be linked to the neoliberal process of privatization of higher education. But is the U.S. student loan debt crisis a state crime? This article examines the social harm student loan debt has caused; proposes an explanation for the shift to debt-financed, commodified public higher education; reveals government disinvestment in public higher education; details the transition of public higher education as a public good to higher education as a commodity financed with debt; and describes Obama administration reforms and De Vos/Trump administration attempts at policy rollback and further privatization. I situate the U.S. student loan debt crisis case in recent debates about crime, social harm, and zemiology.

Keywords

student loan debt state crime social harm zemiology

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

American Council on Education, Division of Government & Public Affairs. (2010). Summary of education provisions in the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010. American Council on Education. https://www.acenet.edu/Documents/Education-Provisions-in-the-Health-Care-and-Education-Reconciliation-Act-of-2010.pdf#search=Summary%20of%20Education%20Provisions%20in%20the%20Health%20Care%20and%20Education%20Reconciliation%20Act%20of%202010t-of-2010.aspx&usg=AOvVaw1Z7Mkpw3Fl5Ef0KeKhH-z0

Boukli

Kotzé

(Eds.). (2018). Zemiology reconnecting crime and social harm. Palgrave Macmillan.

Bowles

Gordon

D. M.

Weisskopf

T. E.

(1990). After the Wasteland: A Democratic Economics for the Year 2000. M.E. Sharpe, Inc.

Cervantes

Creusere

McMillion

McQueen

Short

Steiner

Webster

(2005). Opening the doors to higher education: Perspectives on the Higher Education Act 40 years later. Texas Guaranteed Student Loan Corporation. http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED542500.pdf

College Board. (2019). Trends in student aid 2019 (No. 01469–066). https://research.collegeboard.org/trends/student-aid

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. (2017). Snapshot of older consumers and student loan debt. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Office for Older Americans, and Office for Students and Young Consumers. https://www.consumerfinance.gov/data-research/research-reports/snapshot-older-consumers-and-student-loan-debt/

de Gayardon

Callender

Deane

DesJardins

(2018). Graduate indebtedness: Its perceived effects on behaviour and life choices—A literature review (Centre for Global Higher Education Working Paper Series No. 38). Centre for Global Higher Education. https://www.researchcghe.org/perch/resources/publications/wp38.pdf

Delta Cost Project. (2017). Delta cost project database 1987-2015. American Institutes for Research [distributor]. https://deltacostproject.org/delta-cost-project-database

Fabricant

Brier

(2016). Austerity blues: Fighting for the soul of public education. Johns Hopkins University Press.

10.

Fossey

(1998). Introduction. In Fossey

Bateman

(Eds.), Condemning students to debt: College loans and public policy (pp. 1–6). Teachers College Press.

11.

Fuller

M. B.

(2014). A history of financial aid to students. Journal of Student Financial Aid, 44(1), 1–27.

12.

Gladieux

L. E.

(1983). Future directions of student aid. In Fenske

R. H.

Huff

R. P.

(Eds.), Handbook of student financial aid (pp. 399–433). Jossey-Bass.

13.

Gordon

D. M.

Edwards

Reich

(1982). Segmented work, divided workers: The historical transformation of labor in the United States. Cambridge University Press.

14.

Green

Ward

(2004). State crime: Governments, violence and corruption. Pluto Press.

15.

Greenwald

(2018). Difficulty in gaining financial security for millennials (Aging and Retirement). Society of Actuaries. https://www.soa.org/globalassets/assets/files/resources/research-report/2018/difficulty-gaining-financial.pdf

16.

Hearn

J. C.

(1998). The growing loan orientation in federal financial aid policy: A historical perspective. In Fossey

Bateman

(Eds.), Condemning students to debt: College loans and public policy (pp. 47–75). Teachers College Press.

17.

Hearn

J. C.

Holdsworth

J. M.

(2004). Federal student aid: The shift from grants to loans. In St. John

E. P.

Parsons

M. D.

(Eds.), Public funding of higher education: Changing contexts and new rationales (pp. 40–59). Johns Hopkins University Press.

18.

Hegji

(2018). The Higher Education Act: A Primer (No. R43351) . Congressional Research Service. https://www.acenet.edu/Pages/Renewing-the-Higher-Education-Act.aspx

19.

Hillyard

Pantazis

Tombs

Gordon

(Eds.). (2004). Beyond criminology: Taking harm seriously. Pluto Press.

20.

Hillyard

Tombs

(2004). Beyond criminology? In Hillyard

Pantazis

Tombs

Gordon

(Eds.), Beyond criminology: Taking harms seriously (pp. 10–29). Pluto Press.

21.

Houle

J. N.

Addo

F. R.

(2018). Racial disparities in student debt and the reproduction of the fragile black middle class. Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, 5(4), 562–577. https://doi.org/10.1177/2332649218790989

22.

Huelsman

(2019). Debt to society: The case for bold, equitable student loan cancellation and reform. Demos. https://www.demos.org/sites/default/files/2019-06/Debt%20to%20Society.pdf

23.

The Institute for College Access and Success, the Century Foundation, & National Consumer Law Center. (2019). Top 10 ways the new borrower defense rule is worse for borrowers. The Institute for College Access and Success. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwic0YW6xZ_nAhWKGs0KHVI0Cd8QFjAAegQIBxAB&url=https%3A%2F%2Fticas.org%2Faccountability%2Ftop-10-ways-new-borrower-defense-rule-worse-borrowers%2F&usg=AOvVaw1-fQ43ePwA_93g42nTNRSb

24.

Jackson

B. A.

Reynolds

J. R.

(2013). The price of opportunity: Race, student loan debt, and college achievement. Sociological Inquiry, 83(3), 335–368. https://doi.org/10.1111/soin.12012

25.

Kotz

D. M.

(2003). Neoliberalism and the social structure of accumulation theory of long-run capital accumulation. Review of Radical Political Economics, 35(3), 263–270.

26.

Kotz

D. M.

(2015). The rise and fall of neoliberal capitalism. Harvard University Press.

27.

Kotz

D. M.

Wolfson

M. H.

(2004). Deja Vu all over again: The “new” economy in historical perspective. Labor Studies Journal, 28(4), 25–44.

28.

Kramer

R. C.

Michalowski

R. J.

(2005). War, aggression, and state crime: A criminological analysis of the invasion and occupation of Iraq. British Journal of Criminology, 45(2005), 446–469.

29.

Kreighbaum

(2019, July 2). DeVos issues final repeal of gainful employment. Inside Higher Ed. https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2019/07/02/devos-issues-final-repeal-gainful-employment

30.

Michalowski

(2010). In search of “state and crime” in state crime studies. In Chambliss

W. J.

Michalowski

Kramer

R. C.

(Eds.), State crime in the global age (pp. 13–30). Willan.

31.

Miller

(2017). New federal data show a student loan crisis for African American borrowers. Center for American Progress. https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/education-postsecondary/news/2017/10/16/440711/new-federal-data-show-student-loan-crisis-african-american-borrowers/

32.

Sutherland

E. H.

(1940). White-collar criminality. American Sociological Review, 5(1), 1–12.

33.

Sutherland

E. H.

(1945). Is “white collar crime” crime? American Sociological Review, 10(2), 132–139.

34.

Sutherland

E. H.

(1949). White collar crime. Dryden Press.

35.

Tombs

(2018). For pragmatism and politics: Crime, social harm, and zemiology. In Boukli

Kotzé

(Eds.), Zemiology: Reconnecting crime and social harm (pp. 11–31). Palgrave Macmillan.

36.

U.S. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. (2020). Student loans owned and securitized, outstanding [SLOAS], total revolving credit owned and securitized, outstanding [REVOLSL], motor vehicle loans owned and securitized, outstanding [MVLOAS]. FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/

37.

U.S. Department of Education. (2016). Fact sheet: Obama administration announces release of new scorecard data. https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/fact-sheet-obama-administration-announces-release-new-scorecard-data

38.

U.S. Department of Education. (2018). President’s FY 2019 budget request for the U.S. Department of Education. https://www2.ed.gov/about/overview/budget/budget19/justifications/index.html

39.

U.S. Department of Education. (2019a). President’s FY 2020 budget request for the U.S. Department of Education. https://www2.ed.gov/about/overview/budget/budget20/justifications/index.html

40.

U.S. Department of Education. (2019b). Secretary Devos finalizes higher education regulations that promote innovation, protect students, and reduce regulatory burden. https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/secretary-devos-finalizes-higher-education-regulations-promote-innovation-protect-students-and-reduce-regulatory-burden

41.

U.S. Department of Education. (2019c). U.S. Department of education finalizes regulations to protect student borrowers, hold higher education institutions accountable and save taxpayers $11.1 billion over 10 years. https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/us-department-education-finalizes-regulations-protect-student-borrowers-hold-higher-education-institutions-accountable-and-save-taxpayers-111-billion-over-10-years

42.

U.S. Department of Education. (2020a). President’s FY 2021 budget request for the U.S. Department of Education. https://www2.ed.gov/about/overview/budget/budget21/justifications/index.html

43.

U.S. Department of Education. (2020b). President Trump Proposes Transformative, Student-First Budget to Return Power to States, Limit Federal Control of Education. U.S. Department of Education. https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/president-trump-proposes-transformative-student-first-budget-return-power-states-limit-federal-control-education

44.

U.S. Department of Education. National Center for Education Statistics. (1998). Higher Education General Information Survey (HEGIS), 1968-1969 to 1985-1986: Financial statistics. Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor]. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR02094.v1

45.

U.S. Government Accountability Office. (2019). Millennial generation: Information on the economic status of millennial households compared to previous generations (GAO-20-194). https://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-20-194

46.

Williams

J. J.

(2008). Student debt and the spirit of indenture. Dissent, 55, 73–78.