Local Labor-Market Opportunity and Adolescent Delinquency

Abstract

In this article the authors extend the literature on adolescent delinquency by offering a theoretical framework that integrates insights from labor-market and stratification research on the one hand and microlevel family and criminological research on the other. Analyses draw from local labor-market data and nationally representative longitudinal survey data on adolescents and employ techniques that take into account clustering within hierarchical structures. Findings suggest strong effects of low-wage service-sector concentration and unemployment on the likelihood of both fighting and drug use among adolescents. Consistent with our emphasis on potential mediating processes, it was found that these effects are partially produced through the patterning of family income, family intactness, and adolescent attachment to parents and school. An interesting finding is wage service-sector size and unemployment effects on adolescent delinquency that low persist even with potential mediators controlled. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)