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Crime Scars: Recessions and the Making of Career Criminals

Brian Bell1; Anna Bindler2; Stephen Machin3

1 King’s College London and London School of Economics · 2 University of Gothenburg · 3 London School of Economics

The Review of Economics and Statistics 2018 open access

Abstract Recessions lead to short-term job loss, lower happiness, and decreasing income levels. There is growing evidence that workers who first join the labor market during economic downturns suffer from poor job matches that can have sustained detrimental effects on wages and career progressions. This paper uses U.S. and U.K. data to document a more disturbing long-run effect of recessions: young people who leave school during recessions are significantly more likely to lead a life of crime than those entering a buoyant labor market. Thus, crime scars resulting from higher entry-level unemployment rates prove to be long lasting and substantial.

DOI
10.1162/rest_a_00698
Volume
100 (3)
Pages
392-404
Language
en
Export
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