Crime, Employment and Social Welfare: An Individual-Level Study on Disadvantaged Males

Abstract

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. We test economic and sociological theories for the relationship between employment and crime, where social welfare is used as an identifying mechanism. Methods: We consider a sample of disadvantaged males from The Netherlands who are observed between ages 18 and 32 on a monthly time scale. We simultaneously model the offending, employment and social welfare variables using a dynamic discrete choice model, where we allow for state dependence, reciprocal effects and time-varying unobserved heterogeneity. Results: We find significant negative bi-directional structural effects between employment and property crime. Robustness checks show that only regular employment is able to significantly reduce the offending probability. Further, a significant uni-directional effect is found for the public assistance category of social welfare on property offending. Terms of use: Documents in Conclusions:The results highlight the importance of economic incentives for explaining the relationship between employment and crime for disadvantaged individuals. For these individuals the crime reducing effects from the public assistance category of social welfare equivalent to those from employment, which suggests the importance of financial gains. Further, the results suggest that stigmatizing effects from offending reduce the future employment probability.

Post-Release Source of Income and Convictions of Formerly Incarcerated Adults

“…One study among formerly incarcerated adults (Makarios et al, 2010) showed that besides employment, receiving social benefits also reduced crime. This result was also found in two studies among previously institutionalized youth (Mesters et al, 2016; Verbruggen et al, 2015). However, a study among formerly incarcerated adult females indicated that receiving social benefits was not related to differences in criminal behavior (Rodermond, 2018), while another study among formerly incarcerated adults indicated that receiving benefits increased rather than decreased the odds of a reconviction (Skardhamar & Telle, 2012).…”

Employment, Crime, and the Life Course

“…This study also found evidence suggesting that the duration of unemployment was positively related to property crime. Similar patterns were observed in a Dutch study (Mesters, van der Geest, and Bijleveld 2014), where regular employment (but not temporary employment) was negatively associated with property crime but unrelated to violent crime. Attending to the duration of both employment and unemployment, and using both random and fixed effects models, Verbruggen, Blokland, and van der Geest (2012) found employment to be associated with lower levels of offending among males and females, but employment duration was significant only for males.…”

A phenomenological study of employer perspectives on hiring ex- offenders

“…Trimbur (2009) reported that employment reduced recidivism tendency and facilitate ex-offender's adjustment to civilian life in several ways. According to Mesters, van der Geest, and Bijleveld (2014) the probability of criminal behavior amongst ex-offender's reduces significantly when employed. First, employment provides ex-offenders an opportunity to earn wages, which helps to pay for transportation, food, and other daily expenses and may enable them to rebuild lost relationships with children and family.…”