Crime and Poverty: Some Experimental Evidence From Ex-Offenders

Building on perspectives from sociology, criminology, and economics, this article reports findings from a randomized experiment undertaken with over 2,000 ex-offenders in the states of Texas and Georgia in which unemployment benefits were extended to individuals immediately upon release from prison. The analysis focuses on the endogenous relationships (over a one-year follow-up period) between these transfer payments, unemployment, arrests for property and nonproperty crimes, and the resulting time spent in jail or prison. By and large, the hypotheses derived from a priori theory are supported by the data. (abstract Adapted from Source: American Sociological Review, 1980.