Do jobs and income-transfer programs affect crime? The answer depends on why one is
asking the question, which shapes what one means by “crime.” Many studies focus on …

US cities have recently increased the share of their budgets devoted to policing and
decreased the share devoted to social services. However, a growing body of research …

Using a random judge design and panel data from Norway, we estimate that imprisonment
discourages further criminal behavior, with reoffense probabilities falling by 29 percentage …

This paper estimates the impact of local labor market conditions on criminal recidivism using
administrative prison records on four million offenders released from 43 states between …

Criminal background checks are increasingly being incorporated into hiring decisions by
employers. Although originally uncompromising—almost anyone with a criminal record …

Programs to encourage labor market activity among youth, including public employment
programs and wage subsidies like the Work Opportunity Tax Credit, can be supported by …

Although the association between unemployment and offending is well established,
relatively little is known about the impact of vocational education and training programs on …

An inverse relationship between employment and crime is well established, although the
mechanisms that account for the correlation remain poorly understood. In the current study …

Half of individuals released from prison in the United States will be re-incarcerated within
three years, creating an incarceration cycle that is detrimental to individuals, families, and …

A large social science research literature examines the effects of prisons on crime and
socioeconomic inequality, but the penal institution itself is often a black box overlooked in …