The Employment-Crime Association for Individuals Convicted of a Sexual Offense in their Youth

Abstract

Objective We study the bi-directional relationship between employment and crime for individuals convicted for a sexual offense in their youth (JSO) and investigate the moderating influences of age and employment duration. Method A bi-variate dynamic binary choice model is developed to allow for interactions between employment and crime. The model takes into account statistical aspects such as state dependence and unobserved heterogeneity. Results For a sample of N = 493 JSO, who are observed in early adulthood, age 18 until 28, we find significant negative predictive effects for employment on property offending and vice versa. For other types of offenses, the model indicates that the negative correlation with employment is due to spurious effects. This holds for all ages, but the negative effect of employment on property offending becomes stronger for the older cohorts, while the effect of property offending on employment decreases in magnitude. Employment duration is found to be a mild moderating factor. Conclusion The evidence in favor of bidirectional negative relationships among offending and employment that increase in magnitude with age suggests the importance of theories that emphasize cumulative (dis)advantage, such as social control theory.

Privacy, promotionalism and the proliferation of state-performed criminal record screening in the Netherlands: How a restrictive legal framework can still result in a steep increase of criminal background checks

“…In the Dutch case, screening as an instrument of crime prevention has partly redistributed crime control tasks to employers, who have been persuaded in several ways, as discussed above, to increase their reliance on CoCs. A survey among 875 Dutch employers demonstrated that 78% say they require CoCs because they feel 'obliged' to so do, whereas interviews revealed that most of them do not know whether this is required by law or merely a requirement deriving from the internal policy of the company or organisation (Valk et al, 2006).…”

“…The government thus seems to have succeeded in creating a culture of collective responsibilisation providing strong incentives for employers to resort to criminal record screening, even when this is not mandated by law as in most cases. Interestingly, a policy evaluation among various employers revealed that on average 40% perceived the CoC merely as an administrative burden without attaching any substantive value to it (Valk et al, 2006). What is more, a similar percentage would consider not requesting CoCs, or requesting them only in specific situations if they did not feel obliged to do so.…”

“…To be able to effectively unstitch the mark of a criminal record, a predictable and clear rehabilitation policy seems to be required (Maruna, 2011; Van ’t Zand-Kurtovic, 2017) that unburdens ex-offenders from their stigma and increases their possibilities to obtain stable employment (Van den Berg and Mesters, 2017; Verbruggen, 2014). To actively promote desistance from crime, society at large is also called on to play an active role by showing a willingness to reaccept ex-offenders into the social fabric (Maruna, 2014).…”