Crime, Age, and Employment

Abstract

It was hypothesized that prior failure to find marked relationships between crime and economic conditions reflect the countervailing influences of an inverse relationship of juvenile criminality with unemployment and a direct relationship of offenses by adults with unemployment. Crude data for the United States, and somewhat more adequate data for Chicago, Boston, and Cincinnati, largely support the hypotheses. It is suggested that conversion to criminality, interpreted by the Merton Social Structure and Anomie paradigm, best explains these findings, and provides a needed complement to Sutherland's type of explanation for persistence in crime. (Abstract Adapted from Source: American Sociological Review, 1959. Copyright © 1959 by the American Sociological Association) Illinois Massachusetts Ohio Crime Causes Age Factors Employment Factors Unemployment Factors Juvenile Crime Juvenile Offender Adult Crime Adult Offender Age Factors Socioeconomic Factors 07-02