NCJ Number
79459
Journal
Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology Volume: 72 Issue: 3 Dated: (Fall 1981) Pages: 1055-1071
Date Published
1981
Length
17 pages
Annotation
Although conventional rehabilitation programs aimed at enhancing an offender's economic status have not often been successful, such programs have considerable promise when they are carefully designed and targeted at a group of offenders who choose crime as a rational alternative to work.
Abstract
The existence of a relation between economic status and rehabilitation can be deduced from neoclassical principles and assumptions. The BES (Becarria, Ehrlich, and Sjoquist) model provides a formal connection between economic status and the crime rate. In the BES model, well-being is functionally related to wealth. The more general theory emerging from the work of Heineke, Block, and Lind (the HBL model) precludes the categorical statement that an increase in legitimate income, through welfare, job training, work release, etc., reduces the likelihood that an individual will commit an offense. The neoclassical theory of crime causation in its more general HBL formulation yields no a priori support for the relationship between economic status and crime. An enhancement of legitimate income and employment opportunities may or may not induce a shift out of criminal activity. Research using aggregate data provides only weak support for the simple proposition that unemployment causes crime. Moreover, research using such data does not provide convincing tests of the relationship between low income and crime. In contrast, research using individual data provides consistent but weak support for the proposition that higher income is associated with lower levels of criminal activity, and weak, if any support, for unemployment being significantly associated with criminal activity. Finally, the programmatic literature provides glimmers of hope among mostly insignificant program effects. Nevertheless, the paper does not reject the hypothesis that crime and economic status are not related. It contends that the evidence presented represents at best a very imperfect test of the BES model and no test whatsoever of the more general HBL model. The article recommends the development, implementation, and evaluation of a carefully designed set of programs to improve economic viability for a group of individuals whose criminal activity appears likely to be affected by improved economic prospects. A total of 85 footnotes are provided, (Author summary modified)