Criminal Policy and Life Chances: A Multi-Cohort Study of Criminality and Welfare Outcomes Among Young People Growing Up Under Different Drug Policy Regimes

• In Event: EDLC: multi-cohort studies

Abstract

Individuals' life chances are shaped by the historical situation that prevails in the society they grow up in. This premise has been difficult for life course criminology to study empirically, given that single-cohort studies describe individuals who grew up in a specific time. In this study, we intend to examine the significance of changes in criminal policy. Based on assumptions that Net-Widening (NW) has an impact on registered offences and future living conditions, we examine 1) how periods that differ in the degree of police control of minor drug offenses affect the composition of registered crime. 2) How NW is related to the sociodemographic composition of those prosecuted. 3) How future criminal burden and living conditions appear for young people who are prosecuted before and after NW occurred. To analyze these questions, we need longitudinal data from different birth cohorts. Within the framework of the project Social Change and Crime, we have access to data on the upbringing conditions, crime, and adult lives of over 30 cohorts. In the results section, we describe the outcomes in the different cohorts and account for the significance of the cohorts' sociodemographic composition for differences in future crime and life chances.

Authors

• felipe estrada, Stockholm university

• Olof Backman, Department of Criminology, Stockholm University, Sweden

• Anders Nilsson, Stockholm university

• Fredrik Sivertsson, Stockholm university