This article analyzes the effects of employment on delinquent development from 18 to 32 years of age in 270 high-risk males. Prior to 18 years of age, all men had undergone residential treatment for serious problem behavior in a juvenile justice institution in the Netherlands. We use semiparametric group-based models to investigate the effect of employment on their offending, taking into account static personality and background characteristics. We examine the effect of being employed and further distinguish the effects of job quality ("on the payroll" or being employed through temporary work agencies) and job stability (duration). We find that employment is significantly related to *
Objectives:
This article analyzes the criminal development and sociodemographic and criminal profile of a sample of prosecuted white-collar offenders. It identifies trajectory groups and describes their profiles based on crime, sociodemographic, and selection offence characteristics.
Methods:
The criminal development of 644 prosecuted white-collar offenders in the Netherlands was examined using all registered offences from age 12 onward. In addition, sociodemographic background information was gathered from the Netherlands Internal Revenue Service and Municipal Personal Records Office. Trajectory analysis was conducted to approximate the underlying continuous distribution in criminal development by a discrete number of groups.
Results:
The criminal career characteristics and sociodemographic profile show a heterogeneous sample of white-collar offenders. Trajectory analysis distinguished four trajectory groups. Two low-frequency offender groups, totaling 78 percent, are characterized by their adult onset. The two high-frequency offender groups, totaling 22 percent, are characterized by their adolescent onset. Distinct and internally consistent offender profiles emerged for the four trajectory groups on the basis of crime, sociodemographic, and selection offence characteristics.
Conclusions:
The diversity in offence patterns and offender profiles points to different (developmental) causes for white-collar crime and underlines the importance of further longitudinal research on white-collar offending from an integrated white-collar and life-course perspective.
Life-course criminological research has consistently suggested that employment can reduce criminal behavior. However, it is unclear whether the financial aspects of employment or the social control that inheres in employment best explains the relationship between employment and reduced offending. By using longitudinal information on a sample of men and women (N = 540) who were institutionalized in a Dutch juvenile justice institution in the 1990s, this study examines the effects of employment as well as the different types of income support on crime. Random-and fixed-effects models show that for men, both work and income support are associated with a reduction in the rate of offending. For women, however, although employment is correlated with a lower offending rate, receiving income support, and in particular disability benefits, is correlated with a higher offending rate. The findings support both theories that stress the financial motivation for crime as well as theories that emphasize the importance of informal social control for reducing offending.Life-course criminology argues that making successful transitions to adult social roles facilitates desistance from offending during the young adult years. A successful transition into the labor market seems especially important in this respect as unemployment has repeatedly been found to be related to adult crime (Lageson and Uggen, 2013). Being employed provides potential offenders with a source of income, thereby diminishing their financial motivations for committing offenses. In addition, continued involvement in work may provide potential offenders with a structured daily routine, a social network of conventional colleagues, and a sense of meaning and self-worth, which they are increasingly unlikely to be willing to jeopardize by engaging in criminal behavior. Research up to this *
Life-course theories expect imprisonment to negatively influence a person's employment prospects. Incarceration not only instantaneously interrupts a number of life-course domains but may also reduce future opportunities to reconnect to them. This article analyzes the effects of incarceration on employment by using observational data on the employment careers from age 23 up to age 32 in 270 high-risk males. All men had been treated for delinquency and problematic behavior in a juvenile justice institution in the Netherlands. First, we investigate whether specific employment trajectories can be distinguished within the overall employment pattern in this sample. Second, controlling for selection into both incarceration and low-employment participation, we investigate the effect of incarceration on future employment over and above the effect of being convicted.
In this article, the authors study the effects of family formation on criminal careers for 540 high-risk men and women in the Netherlands. In a prospective design, spanning 21 years, the authors analyzed complete data on offending, marriage, parenthood, and a large set of background information. Random effects were used to model the relation between family-life events and offending, controlling for possible confounders. Findings for men support the hypothesis that marriage promotes desistance from serious offending. Males additionally benefit from parenthood, and from having a first child in particular. Furthermore, although parenthood reduces offending more strongly than marriage, the “full family package” brings the most benefit. Female offending patterns were not significantly influenced by marital status or motherhood.
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