Persistence or Desistance: Intense Adolescent Employment Among Serious Juvenile Offenders

• In Event: Life-Course Transitions and Desistance from Crime

Abstract

Current research tends to indicate an association between intense adolescent work (twenty hours or more per week) and delinquent behavior. However, it has been widely speculated that this relationship is spurious, as many factors associated with juvenile offending also contribute to intense employment during adolescence. The current study will attempt to fill this gap in the literature by utilizing the Pathways to Desistance dataset to examine the long-term relationship between work intensity and self-reported offending in a longitudinal sample of serious juvenile offenders. Work intensity and consistency, social capital, and expectations for success are analyzed as potential predictors of recidivism or desistance as juvenile offenders mature into young adulthood. The relative significance of each of these variables is examined throughout the first seven waves of data collection and discussed from the life course perspective.

Authors

• Leigh Kassem, East Tennessee State University

• Jennifer Pealer, East Tennessee State University

• Dustin L Osborne, East Tennessee State University

• John Whitehead, East Tennessee State University