NCJ Number
144876
Journal
American Sociological Review Volume: 57 Dated: (December 1992) Pages: 752-770
Date Published
1992
Length
19 pages
Annotation
The prestige of criminal and conventional occupations was explored using a longitudinal design and ratings from unemployed drug addicts and ex-offenders in seven major U.S. metropolitan areas.
Abstract
Data were collected as part of the National Supported Work Demonstration Project, a randomized experiment conducted between 1975 and 1978, that examined the relationship between legitimate work opportunities and subsequent criminal behavior. Prestige ratings allowed the researchers to search for a criminal counterpart to the conventional structure of occupational prestige, to examine relative prestige ratings of criminal and conventional occupations, and to assess behavioral hypotheses derived from criminal subculture theories concerning the relationship between occupational prestige and income from legal and illegal sources. Respondents ranked conventional occupations uniformly higher in prestige than criminal occupations. Moreover, illegal activities of respondents were linked to their ratings of the prestige of criminal occupations but not to their ratings of the prestige of conventional occupations. Implications of the findings for criminal subculture theories are discussed. 67 references and 5 tables