The Effects of Employment on Longitudinal Trajectories of Offending: A Follow-Up of High-Risk Youth from 18 to 32 Years of Age* (original) (raw)
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Predicting Trajectories of Offending over the Life Course: Findings from a Dutch Conviction Cohort
Journal of Research in …, 2009
Distinguishing trajectories of criminal offending over the life course, especially the prediction of high-rate offenders, has received considerable attention over the past two decades. Motivated by a recent study by , this study uses longitudinal data on conviction histories from the Dutch Criminal Career and Life-Course Study (CCLS) to examine whether adolescent risk factors predict offending trajectories across the life span. The CCLS is particularly well suited to study developmental offending trajectories as it contains detailed information on individual criminal offending careers for a representative sample of all individuals convicted in the Netherlands in 1977 (n = 4,615) beginning at 12 years of age and continuing into late adulthood. To assess predictive Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency 46(4) 468-494
THE EFFECTS OF LIFE CIRCUMSTANCES ON LONGITUDINAL TRAJECTORIES OF OFFENDING*
Criminology, 2005
This study, which is based on individual criminal careers over a 60year period, focuses on the development of criminal behavior. It first examines the impact that life circumstances such as work and marriage have on offending, then tests whether the effects of these circumstances are different for different groups of offenders, and finally examines the extent to which the age-crime relationship at the aggregate level can be explained by age-graded differences in life circumstances. Official data were retrieved for a 4-percent (N=4,615) sample of all individuals whose criminal case was tried in the Netherlands in 1977. Self-report data were derived from a nationally representative survey administered in the Netherlands in 1996 to 2,244 individuals aged 15 years or older. In analyzing this data, we use semi-parametric group-based models. Results indicate that life circumstances substantially influence the chances of criminal behavior, and that the effects of these circumstances on offending differ across offender groups. Age-graded changes in life circumstances, however, explain the aggregate age-crime relationship only to a modest extent. * We thank Daniel Nagin, John Laub, Rolf Loeber, Gerben Bruinsma, Catrien Bijleveld and Ray Paternoster and anonymous referees for numerous helpful suggestions. Please contact the authors at NSCR (Nederlands Studiecentrum Criminaliteit en Rechtshandhaving),
European Journal of Criminology, 2016
Social control theory links being employed with reduced criminal behaviour. In particular, the indirect social control generated by the perceived benefits of the current job are expected to underlie the work–crime association. Features specific to the emerging adult period, however, call into question the strength of the work–crime association during this new life stage. This study uses data from the Utrecht Study of Adolescent Development (USAD), a longitudinal self-report study among 669 men and women aged 18 to 24 at the start of the study to examine the extent to which working a paid job is associated with reduced levels of delinquency and crime, and the extent to which this association is conditional on individual job perceptions. We also test for gender differences in these associations. Results indicate that for men – but not for women – paid work is associated with lower levels of delinquency and crime, but only from age 24 onwards.
LIFE SPAN OFFENDING TRAJECTORIES OF A DUTCH CONVICTION COHORT*
Criminology, 2005
PAUL NIEUWBEERTA NSCR (Nederlands Studiecentrum Criminaliteit en Rechtshandhaving -Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement) KEYWORDS: age-crime relationship, life-course transitions, developmental trajectory The aim of this paper is to describe the development of criminal behavior from early adolescence to late adulthood based on conviction data for a sample of Dutch offenders. Measuring over an age span of 12 to 72, we ask whether there is evidence for (1) criminal trajectories that are distinct in terms of time path, (2) a small group of persistent offenders, (3) criminal trajectories that are distinct in the mix of crimes committed, or, more specifically, persistent offenders disproportionately engaging in violent offences, and (4) different offender groups having different social profiles in life domains other than crime. The analysis is *
The Effects of Incarceration on Longitudinal Trajectories of Employment
Crime & Delinquency, 2014
Life-course theories expect imprisonment to negatively influence a person’s employment prospects. Incarceration not only instantaneously interrupts a number of life-course domains but may also reduce future opportunities to reconnect to them. This article analyzes the effects of incarceration on employment by using observational data on the employment careers from age 23 up to age 32 in 270 high-risk males. All men had been treated for delinquency and problematic behavior in a juvenile justice institution in the Netherlands. First, we investigate whether specific employment trajectories can be distinguished within the overall employment pattern in this sample. Second, controlling for selection into both incarceration and low-employment participation, we investigate the effect of incarceration on future employment over and above the effect of being convicted.
The juvenile sex offender: The effect of employment on offending
Journal of Criminal Justice, 2014
Purpose: In many countries, sex offenders are treated as a special group of offenders, requiring special criminal justice responses and treatment modalities, presuming they are at high risk of re-offending. These special measures limit them in entering adult roles, especially employment. At the same time, such adult roles have been found to reduce offending risk in general offenders. We aim to investigate whether employment reduces offending rates in juvenile sex offenders' (JSO). Method: Using longitudinal data on a Dutch sample of 498 JSO, we investigate employment and offending careers in JSO. A hybrid random effects model is used to investigate within-individual changes of employment quality and employment stability on offending. We also investigated whether the effects differ for child abusers, peer abusers and group offenders, who have different background profiles and for whom employment effects could be less. Results: We first show that JSO enter the labor market at relatively young ages, with stagnating participation rates from age 25 on, and numerous and short-lived employment contracts. In spite of these fractured careers, employment is associated with a decrease in offending. We found no difference for offender types in the effect of employment on offending. Conclusions: We conclude that for JSO, employment decreases offending. Policies aimed at guidance towards employment, or the inclusion into conventional society, may be effective for JSO.
EXPLAINING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EMPLOYMENT AND JUVENILE DELINQUENCY*
Criminology, 2010
Most criminological theories predict an inverse relationship between employment and crime, but teenagers' involvement in paid work during the school year is correlated positively with delinquency and substance use. Whether the work-delinquency association is causal or spurious has been debated for a long time. This study estimates the effect of paid work on juvenile delinquency using longitudinal data from the national Monitoring the Future project. We address issues of spuriousness by using a two-level hierarchical model to estimate the relationships of
Assessing the Effect of Adolescent Employment on Involvement in Criminal Activity
Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, 2004
This article considers the problem of estimating the effect of a binary independent variable (employment) on a binary outcome variable (involvement in criminal activity) for a nationally representative sample of adolescents (ages 15-18). The authors’ bivariate analysis confirms a common finding from the literature, that adolescent employment is associated with increased risk of involvement in criminal activity. They then turn to the problem of assessing whether this association is sensitive to plausible assumptions about the impact of other variables (both observed and unobserved) on both employment and crime. This assessment reveals that both the sign and magnitude of the maximum likelihood estimate of the employment effect are quite sensitive to these assumptions. Based on this evidence, they conclude that future efforts to understand the adolescent work-crime relationship will benefit from resolving the ambiguities identified by their analysis.
How Work Affects Crime—And Crime Affects Work—Over The Life Course
Handbook of Life-Course Criminology, 2012
There is a deep and enduring faith among both the general public and policymakers that employment is critically important in addressing crime. This engrained cultural belief has been the backbone of support for programming in this area, such as job-training programs for former prisoners. Yet, the meaning and social signi fi cance of both work and crime change dramatically over the life course, such that work may have one effect in adolescence and quite another in adulthood. We will fi rst unpack the theoretical foundation undergirding these cultural beliefs and then examine the empirical research that tests them.