Educational Credentials and Earnings Portfolios of Justice-Involved Youth During the Transition to Adulthood

• In Event: Reimagining Justice Inside Schools

Abstract

Extant literature suggests that justice-involved youth obtain fewer educational credentials, earn less money in the formal labor market, and are more likely to experience justice system contact in adulthood. Due to a principal focus on the high school diploma and formal labor market earnings, overlooked are 1) the GED and licenses and/or certificates, which are common educational credentials among justice-involved individuals, and 2) broader earnings portfolios including alternative income sources to supplement formal labor market earnings, such as under-the-table and illicit sources. I use the Pathways to Desistance, a sample of justice-involved youth, to address whether educational credentials – the high school diploma, the GED, a license and/or certificate, and multiple educational credentials – are associated with differences in earnings portfolios during the transition to adulthood. Preliminary results indicate that, as expected, high school graduates earn more in the formal labor market than uncredentialed individuals as well as those with a GED only and a license and/or certificate only. However, while the high school diploma protects against supplementing formal income with illicit income, the high school diploma increases the probability of supplementing with under-the-table income when coupled with a license and/or certificate. Theoretical and policy implications will be discussed.

Author

• Brandy R. Parker, The Pennsylvania State University