Employment and Crime - A Survey of Brooklyn Arrested Persons

Although employment and schooling were related to involvement in the criminal justice system, age and ethnicity were more powerful predictors. The older persons in the sample showed a stronger relationship between labor market participation and arrest rates than did the younger persons. Similarly, blacks and Hispanics with more positive labor market participation had lower arrest rates, whereas white persons showed weak or no associations between the labor market and the arrest measures. Models that consider only economic variables are thus inadequate. Analysis of the relationship between employment and crime must consider individual decisionmaking, the social contexts that affect decisionmaking, and the broader structure of economic opportunities. Footnotes, data tables, and 56 references.