Crime as an Occupation - A New Look

• NCJ Number: 74111
• Journal: Criminology Volume: 18 Issue: 3 Dated: (November 1980) Pages: 399-410
• Author(s): F T Cullen; B G Link
• Date Published: 1980
• Length: 12 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Earlier version of this article was presented at the 1980 Meeting of the Midwest Sociological Society.

Annotation

This study of the occupational characteristics of criminal behavior shows that, like conventional occupations, criminal work is stratified by prestige, and stereotyped by sex, thus making Davis and Moore's (1945) functional theory applicable to criminal occupations.

Abstract

A pretested questionnaire was distributed to a nonrandom sample of 117 male and female students in social science classes at a midwestern State university, with 20 criminal occupations listed in a sexually neuter fashion. In order to qualify as an occupation, the criminal activity had to enable a person to accrue economic resources or money. Therefore, such categories as full-time and moonlighting crime, and organizationally based crime versus individual entrepreneurship, were used. To measure prestige of an occupation, a seven-point Likert scale was used; and to measure sex stereotyping, a seven-point scale was used with one point for 'only males will go into this occupation' and 7 points for 'only females will go into this occupation.' Seven points were also used to assess the Davis-Moore theory, which states that prestige and other rewards of an occupation, derpend on the functional importance of an occupation for society, the training required to perform the occupational tasks, and the supply and demand of trained aspirants for the occupation. Subjects rated how much each criminal occupation benefited society by providing conventional jobs, products, and services, how much training was needed to perform it, and how easy or difficult it would be to put such training into practice. Criminal occupations in general were accorded a relatively low level of prestige. However, various kinds of criminal work were differentiated, producing a ranking of occupational prestige similar to that of conventional occupations. The data also indicated that criminal occupations are stereotyped by sex; e.g., 15 of the 20 occupations were perceived to be male and accorded more prestige. The theory of occupational stratification may help explain differences in the prestige of various modes of criminal work. A reference list of 27 items is provided.