An Investigation of the Gendered and Racial Dynamics of Employment: Implications for Criminal Trajectories

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Abstract

The examination of employment as a pivotal factor in shaping criminal trajectories has
been the subject of extensive scholarly attention. However, despite significant inquiry, several
questions remain underexplored, particularly questions about when and for whom employment
works as a turning point toward conventionality. Specifically, this study seeks to advance
existing scholarship by contributing to increasing efforts to capture the nuanced heterogeneity
underlying the binary classification of employment status. It aims to incorporate a more
comprehensive spectrum of employment characteristics—such as job quality, satisfaction, and
income—and to investigate the differential impacts of employment on crime, with particular
attention to variations across racial and gender dimensions. In order to address these questions, I use the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97). The results can illuminate pathways for future inquiry into the mechanisms and factors that underpin variations in the influence of employment on distinct demographic groups.

Author

• Logan DiStasio, Rutgers University