Official websites use. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. Email: m. Social control theory links being employed with reduced criminal behaviour. In particular, the indirect social control generated by the perceived benefits of the current job are expected to underlie the workโcrime association. Features specific to the emerging adult period, however, call into question the strength of the workโcrime association during this new life stage.
This study uses data from the Utrecht Study of Adolescent Development USAD , a longitudinal self-report study among men and women aged 18 to 24 at the start of the study to examine the extent to which working a paid job is associated with reduced levels of delinquency and crime, and the extent to which this association is conditional on individual job perceptions.
We also test for gender differences in these associations. Results indicate that for men โ but not for women โ paid work is associated with lower levels of delinquency and crime, but only from age 24 onwards. To many, a negative association between employment and crime may appear almost common sense: as long as people are working a paid job, they will be less in a position to commit crime as well as less motivated.
Yet life-course criminological research shows that this folk wisdom is far from a universal truth and that employment is associated with a decline in criminal behaviour only for some people and in some circumstances Bushway and Reuter, More specifically, the effects of employment are found to depend on age, and also seem to be conditional on the characteristics of the job in question for example, Uggen, Life-course criminological theory explaining the workโcrime association tends to focus on the social control that is generated by employment for example, Sampson and Laub, Apart from the associated earnings, working a paid job can provide the working person with a sense of identity and purpose.
Unwilling to jeopardize past investments and the current and future benefits of work, employed individuals are expected to be less likely to engage in crime. Especially the young, who have few other financial obligations, may use their wages to hang out with peers and to buy alcohol or other substances, the effects of which may nullify or even offset any beneficial effects working a paid job may have on their criminal behaviour.
