The Employment-Crime Association for Individuals Convicted of a Sexual Offense in their Youth

Chantal Van Den Berg,Geert Mesters

doi:10.1007/s40865-017-0064-7

Abstract

ObjectiveWe study the bi-directional relationship between employment and crime for individuals convicted for a sexual offense in their youth (JSO) and investigate the moderating influences of age and employment duration.MethodA bi-variate dynamic binary choice model is developed to allow for interactions between employment and crime. The model takes into account statistical aspects such as state dependence and unobserved heterogeneity.ResultsFor a sample of N = 493 JSO, who are observed in early adulthood, age 18 until 28, we find significant negative predictive effects for employment on property offending and vice versa. For other types of offenses, the model indicates that the negative correlation with employment is due to spurious effects. This holds for all ages, but the negative effect of employment on property offending becomes stronger for the older cohorts, while the effect of property offending on employment decreases in magnitude. Employment duration is found to be a mild moderating factor.ConclusionThe evidence in favor of bidirectional negative relationships among offending and employment that increase in magnitude with age suggests the importance of theories that emphasize cumulative (dis)advantage, such as social control theory.

Highlights

Employment is considered one of the most important means for promoting desistance from criminal activities and enabling reintegration of ex-offenders into society; see [10]
We explain how the employment-crime relationship for juvenile sex offenders can be understood within these general theories. This forms the basis for our empirical study where we study the bi-directional relationship between employment and crime
We focus on the bi-directional relationship between employment and crime and the influence of the moderating factors age and employment duration on this relationship

Summary

Introduction

Employment is considered one of the most important means for promoting desistance from criminal activities and enabling reintegration of ex-offenders into society; see [10]. Crime and the reactions to offending imposed by society and the criminal justice system are often argued to reduce employment probabilities as a result of stigmatization or the process of job skill erosion [18, 33, 51, 52, 84]. This latter finding is less robust, as more mixed empirical evidence exists. This is especially true for the effects of incarceration on employment, see the recent discussions in Kling [28], Apel and Sweeten [5], and Loeffler [35]

Methods

Results

Conclusion