NCJ Number
89516
Journal
Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology Volume: 73 Issue: 4 Dated: (Winter 1982) Pages: 1774-1792
Date Published
1982
Length
19 pages
Annotation
This study found that labor force participation in specified populations of known recidivist property offenders is much more extensive than had been previously thought.
Abstract
The target population, drawn from the 1974 Survey of Inmates of State Correctional Facilities, consisted of 29,474 men who had at least two convictions resulting in incarceration for robbery, burglary, or a combination of the two. The average number of adult incarcerations for the population averaged slightly over three. The present offense of all members of the target population was robbery, burglary, or some other property offense. Given the selection criteria used, it can reasonably be assumed that the subjects were actively pursuing careers in property crime for essentially rational economic motives. Data indicate that about 78 percent of the subjects were employed when arrested for their present offense, with about 95 out of 100 of those employed having full-time jobs. Most of those employed had held their last full-time job for over 1 year. The labor force participation of white offenders was 76 percent, nearly matching the 79.6 percent for the general population. Blacks in the target population had a higher rate of labor force participation (81.6 percent) than did nonwhites in the U.S. population (74.9 percent). Thus, the data suggest that habitual property offenders may be a part of the conventional world of work, using property crime as a second job. Implications of the findings are drawn for criminological theory and rehabilitation strategies. Tabular data are provided.