Two essays on youth criminal behavior and drug use /

Abstract

This dissertation consists of two essays on youth criminal behavior and drug use using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97). The first essay examines the relationship between youth employment and criminal behavior and drug use allowing for endogeneity of the choice variables. Using a recursive bivariate probit model, the results indicate that whether employment is beneficial or harmful to youths depends on the level of work intensity. While working at high intensity, defined as 20-39 hours per week, encourages involvement in criminal activity and drug use, working at low intensity, defined as 1-9 hours per week, discourages it. The evidence suggests that youths who work are more involved with marijuana use and nonviolent crimes involving drugs and money than violent crimes. Policies designed to limit hours of youth employment or reduce concentration of youths in the workplace in order to minimize negative social interaction can be beneficial to youths who choose to work.

The second essay analyzes the extent to which the School-To-Work (STW) programs impact youth criminal behavior and drug use. In 1994, President Clinton signed the School-To-Work Opportunity Act (STWOA) to address a national skills shortage for students who pursue little or no education beyond high school. Using the Heckman sample selection model, the results indicate four types of program impacts---negative, positive, mixed, and none---where negative indicates a decrease and positive an increase in the probability of engaging in illegal behavior. Mentoring and technical preparation programs lower the probability of committing crimes and using drugs. Programs deemed unfavorable because participation in those programs is positively associated with crimes and drug use are school-sponsored enterprise and cooperative education programs. Two programs that demonstrate mixed results, a negative impact on crimes but a positive impact on drug use, are the job shadowing and the internship programs. The only program not related to youth criminal behavior and drug use is the career major program.