| NCJ Number: |
89828  |
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| Title: |
Economic Status and Crime - Implications for Offender Rehabilitation (From Unemployment and Crime - Joint Hearings, P 544-553, 1982 See NCJ-89821) |
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| Author(s): |
T Orsagh; A D Witte |
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| Date Published: |
1982 |
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| Page Count: |
9 |
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| Sponsoring Agency: |
National Institute of Justice/
Rockville, MD 20849
NCJRS Photocopy Services
Rockville, MD 20849-6000 |
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| Sale Source: |
National Institute of Justice/
NCJRS paper reproduction
Box 6000, Dept F
Rockville, MD 20849
United States of America
NCJRS Photocopy Services
Box 6000
Rockville, MD 20849-6000
United States of America |
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| Document: |
PDF |
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| Language: |
English |
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| Country: |
United States of America |
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| Annotation: |
Although research shows a weak association between economic status and crime, empirical evidence has not yet challenged the theory of a relationship between crime and economic status under special conditions, such that policy and programs could impact crime by countering such conditions. |
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| Abstract: |
One of the special conditions predicted to be a factor in linking economic status and crime is a significant change in economic status great enough to induce an exchange of illegitimate activity for legitimate activity or vice versa. For most offenders addicted to alcohol and drugs, the legitimate employment available cannot provide the income required to pay for their addictive consumption, so supplements or a sole income from illegitimate activities are usually required. Illegitimate activities will only become unnecessary with a reduction in drug and alcohol intake. Also, persons who find the steady, routine, hard work that typifies much legitimate work to be highly distasteful are not likely to find the programmatic payoff sufficient inducement to give up illegitimate activity. Conversely, a person for whom a criminal act is extremely repugnant is not likely to turn to crime because of a substantial reduction in legitimate income. Also improved economic status will have little effect on that segment of the population that treats leisure time as a variable. Such persons may accept legitimate work at the expense of leisure while maintaining their level of illegitimate activity. The relationship between crime and economic status is thus likely to exist only with reference to a particular population: a population for whom small (marginal) differences in returns are significant and for whom legitimate and illegitimate activity are substitutes (leisure is not variable). Programs should be targeted to this population likely to be affected by improved economic prospects. |
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| Index Term(s): |
Economic analysis of crime; Employment-crime relationships; Unemployment |
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To cite this abstract, use the following link:
http://www.ncjrs.gov/App/publications/abstract.aspx?ID=89828 |
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