Changes in offending around official labor market entry: Vulnerable youths in transition to adulthood

This chapter analyzes changes in offending around job entry in a sample of previously institutionalized young adults in the Netherlands. Using yearly data for official employment and convictions the chapter examines changes in the risk of offending during the years before and after official job entry. Although not providing estimates of causal effects of employment, the results on timing of change will shed light on which theoretical perspective is the more plausible in explaining the role of labor market transition in relation to criminal offending in a group of vulnerable young adults who have marginal labor market status prior to job entry. Analyzing longitudinal survey data on young adults and a small sample of interviews with convicted felons, they show that—while adolescents may perceive delinquency as adult behavior—delinquency in adulthood is associated with low levels of adult status.