Degree Name
MA (Master of Arts)
Program
Criminal Justice and Criminology
Date of Award
8-2017
Committee Chair or Co-Chairs
Jennifer Pealer
Committee Members
Dustin Osborne, John Whitehead
Abstract
Current research indicates an association between intense adolescent work (twenty hours or more per week) and delinquent behavior. It has been widely speculated that this relationship is spurious, occurring only as a result of other factors which are common to both offending and intense employment. The current study attempts to fill a gap in the literature by utilizing the Pathways to Desistance dataset to examine the evolution of the relationship between work and self-reported offending in a longitudinal sample of juvenile offenders. Work intensity and consistency, social capital, and expectations for success were analyzed as potential predictors of recidivism or desistance as juvenile offenders mature into adulthood. Variations in the significance of these variables throughout the first seven waves of data collection were examined from the life course perspective. Results provide support for the theory of age graded social control and suggest that high risk youth self-select into intensive work roles as adolescents. No statistically significant differences in lifetime offending were found between respondents across varying levels of work intensity.
Document Type
Thesis - unrestricted
Recommended Citation
Kassem, Leigh, "The Effects of Employment on Recidivism Among Delinquent Juveniles" (2017). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 3302. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/3302
Copyright
Copyright by the authors.
Included in
Civic and Community Engagement Commons, Criminology Commons, Criminology and Criminal Justice Commons, Family, Life Course, and Society Commons, Inequality and Stratification Commons, Juvenile Law Commons, Labor and Employment Law Commons, Law and Economics Commons, Law and Society Commons, Other Economics Commons, Race and Ethnicity Commons, Social Control, Law, Crime, and Deviance Commons, Social Policy Commons, Student Counseling and Personnel Services Commons, Work, Economy and Organizations Commons