Employment and crime: A longitudinal follow-up of organized crime offenders

Employment is considered to help offenders desist from crime. Studies focusing on organized crime offenders, however, have suggested that employment may promote rather than inhibit crime for these offenders, but lacked quantitative individual-level data to confirm this finding. Using a large sample of organized crime offenders (N= 1921) and longitudinal individual data on offending, employment, income and financial support, the current study aims to clarify the role of employment in the offending careers of these offenders. Fixed effects models show the effects of employment, self-employment and employment on the payroll. For organized crime offenders, being employed is associated with a 10 percent increase in offending and having their own business is associated with a 23 percent increase in offending. For organized crime offenders in leadership positions, employment is associated with a 47 percent increase in offending and owning a business is associated with a 68 percent increase in offending.