Abstract
This study examines the relationships between the employability and criminality of white and black male teenagers. A disequilibrium model of employment and crime is formulated and estimated as a simultaneous probit equation system. Our results show that black teenagers who are employed engage in fewer criminal activities. Thus, it appears that blacks view employment and crime as alternative income-generating activities. On the other hand, the criminal behavior of white male teenagers is unaffected by their employment status. The evidence that we provide indicates that whites tend to use employment as a cover for crime or to moonlight in crime. The differences in the behaviors of whites and blacks can be explained, in part, by different legitimate opportunity structures for whites and blacks. One of the more important policy implications is that job opportunities targeted to high risk, black teenage populations will have the additional beneficial effect of reducing crime rates.
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Notes
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op. cit..
op. cit. ; Sviridoff, et al., op. cit.; Harold Holtzman, “The Serious Habitual Property Offender as ‘Moonlighter’: An Empirical Study of Labor Force Participation Among Robbers and Burglars,”Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology 73 (1983), pp. 1774-92; Myers, 1983, op. cit.
op. cit..; Christenson and Thornberry, op. cit.
op. cit..
Mercer L. Sullivan,New York Affairs (New York: NYU Urban Research Center, N.Y., New York, 1983).
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op. cit..
op. cit. ; Isaac Ehrlich, “Participation in Illegitimate Activities: A Theoretical and Empirical Investigation,”Journal of Political Economy 81 (May–June 1973), pp. 521-65.
Good and Pirog-Good, 1987, op. cit.; Good, et al., 1986, op. cit.
op. cit..
T. Amemiya, “The Estimation of Simultaneous Equation Generalized Probit Models,”Econometrica 46 (1978), pp. 193–205; J. Heckman, “Dummy Endogenous Variables in a Simultaneous Equation System,”Econometrica 46 (1978), pp. 931–959.
For more detailed information on econometrics of this model, see Good, et al., 1986, op. cit.
See, Llad Philips and Harold J. Votey, “Rational Choice Models of Crime by Youth” in this volume.
op. cit..
op. cit..
David Cantor and Kenneth C. Land, “Unemployment and Crime Rates in the Post-World War II United States: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis,”American Sociological Review 50 (June 1985), pp. 317–32.
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Good, D.H., Pirog-Good, M.A. A simultaneous probit model of crime and employment for black and white teenage males. Rev Black Polit Econ 16, 109–127 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02900927
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02900927