Effects of Unemployment on Juvenile Offending

• NCJ Number: 173320
• Journal: Criminal Behaviour and Mental Health Volume: 7 Issue: 1 Dated: 1997 Pages: 49-68
• Author(s): D M Fergusson; M T Lynskey; L J Horwood
• Date Published: 1997
• Length: 20 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Language: English
• Country: United Kingdom

Annotation

This study examined the associations between duration of unemployment and a series of measures of juvenile offending in a birth cohort of 1,265 New Zealand children studied to the age of 18 years.

Abstract

When subjects were 18 years old, they were asked a series of questions about their history of unemployment, education, and training during the preceding 2 years. At the same time, subjects were questioned about their offending behaviors and contact with the criminal justice system, using a variety of instruments that included the Self Report Delinquency Inventory developed by Elliot and Huizinga (1989) and survey items concerning any police contact and the consequences of these contacts. The study found that increasing duration of unemployment was significantly (P greater than 0.001) associated with a series of measures of offending, including violent offending, property crime, arrests, and convictions. Youth who had been unemployed for 6 months or longer had higher mean levels of offending and rates of property offending, violent offending, arrest, and conviction that were 3.0 to 10.4 times higher than those of youth who had not been unemployed; however, unemployment was also associated with a range of adverse social, family, school, individual, and related factors. When the associations between unemployment and criminal offending were adjusted for a range of measures assessed prior to school-leaving age, these associations were substantially reduced. Even after adjustment for these factors, however, youth exposed to unemployment had significantly (P greater than 0.05) higher mean levels of property and violent offending and significantly higher rates of recurrent property offending, arrest, and conviction. The study concludes that much of the association between unemployment and juvenile crime is likely to reflect common life-course processes and factors that make youth vulnerable to both unemployment and criminal offending; however, exposure to unemployment following school-leaving may be associated with increased risks of juvenile offending, particularly property offending. 3 tables and 38 references