Youth Crime and Employment Patterns in Three Brooklyn Neighborhoods

Data came from participant-observation field notes and taped life history interviews gathered between 1979 and 1983. The neighborhoods were La Barriada, a mixed Hispanic and white neighborhood; Projectville, a mainly black neighborhood with a large amount of public housing; and Hamilton Park, a mainly white neighborhood supported by well-paying, blue-collar jobs. In all three neighborhoods, involvement with crime generally preceded work involvement and continued during early employment experiences. With age, crime generally ceased or moderated while work greatly increased, although one or two individuals in each neighborhood became full-time criminals in their late teens. The Hamilton Park group had much more employment and less crime involvement during the middle teen years than did the poorer, minority groups. The more extensive involvement in employment of the Hamilton Park youths may have been a main source of this difference. The data underscore the concentration of systematic predatory street crimes among poor, jobless, urban youths in their middle teens. Appendix detailing study procedures, 60 references.