The Consequences of Adolescent Delinquent Behavior for Adult Employment Outcomes

• In Event: 033 - Section on Crime, Law, and Deviance Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 05. Children, Youth and Violence 1

Abstract

Recent literature links criminal justice contact to diminished employment outcomes; yet, most studies have ignored the possibility that adolescent delinquency may be independently related to curtailed job opportunities. Life-course criminological theory suggests that delinquency “knifes off” legitimate opportunities, even if it is never formally sanctioned. In contrast, “population heterogeneity” models posit that any relationship between offending and employment is spuriously caused by stable between-person differences, whereas a labeling perspective argues that delinquency likely has no effect on later-life outcomes independent of formal sanctions. I use the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (wave 1 n≈20,000) and propensity score weighting techniques to examine the associations between adolescent delinquency, criminal justice contact, and the likelihood and attributes of employment in adulthood. I find that young adults who engaged in serious violent delinquency as adolescents have lower incomes and a lessened likelihood of work in a job that provides fringe benefits, as well as a reduced likelihood of work in a professional or managerial occupation, controlling for individual characteristics that distinguish offenders from non-offenders. It is primarily educational attainment, rather than criminal justice contact, that mediates these relationships. In existing research, delinquent behavior is most often considered a control or assumed to be a constant. As a result, its independent effects are frequently overlooked. My findings suggest that both serious violent delinquency and criminal justice contact may have independent effects on occupational attainment. Targeted intervention by school and community officials could limit the negative implications of offending for employment.

Author

• Angela Carter, UC Davis