NCJ Number
147620
Journal
Crime and Delinquency Volume: 33 Issue: 2 Dated: (April 1987) Pages: 300- 316
Date Published
1987
Length
17 pages
Annotation
Based on a review of relevant literature, this study examines factors that contribute to the trend toward increased unemployment among African-American youths, threatening to create a black urban underclass, and the impact this is likely to have on crime.
Abstract
There are trends in the job market that have closed off entry to work careers for the juvenile population generally and black teenagers specifically. First, there is the loss over many years of jobs in the secondary or manufacturing sector of the economy. This has particularly hurt the job prospects for teenagers who are without the skills, credentialing, or qualifications required for white-collar work. Employment prospects for black youth can only worsen as the private economy is dominated more and more by retail trades and establishments. Second, technology has taken an enormous toll on jobs in both blue-collar and white-collar work. Third, the flight of capital has resulted in the mass loss of employment for both factory and service workers. Fourth, there is a rapid change in the skills required for entry-level positions, especially in those jobs that could provide viable careers. Employers are selecting persons with college degrees and some job experience for entry-level positions in the jobs that carry higher pay. Increasingly, there is little room in the labor force for the teenager who seeks a job directly from secondary school. This is especially true for young blacks. There is now a wealth of data that show unemployed individuals are more likely to commit higher rates of crime. Crime prevention programs must address the structural transformations that have so altered the unemployment differences between black and white youth. 4 tables, 10 notes, and 14 references