Uggen,
Christopher. 1999. “Ex-Offenders and the Conformist Alternative: A Job Quality
Model of Work and Crime.” Social Problems
46:127-51.
ABSTRACT
Criminologists
from diverse theoretical perspectives have long asserted that the quality of
employment is more strongly associated with criminal behavior than its presence
or absence. By this argument, “good jobs” or “meaningful work” are necessary to
induce offenders to desist from crime. This paper constructs a
satisfaction-based measure of job quality using data from the National
Supported Work Demonstration and the 1977 Quality of Employment Survey and tests
whether employment in high quality jobs reduces the likelihood of criminal
behavior among offenders. After statistical corrections for selection into
employment, job quality is found to reduce the likelihood of economic and
non-economic criminal behavior among a sample of released high-risk offenders.
None of the most salient alternative explanations – sample selection, human
capital accumulation, personal expectations, external labor market effects, or
prior criminality – appear to diminish the job quality effect.