Employment or crime? New evidence on how the criminal justice system shapes life trajectories of young people.

How to reduce the social exclusion of youth from disadvantaged populations is a topic of urgency in today’s Swedish society.

The main task of the justice system is to prevent crime, but society stands to gain from justice policy that also targets broader goals of social inclusion.

This project studies how criminal sanctions and policing shape labor market attachment, education and pro-social behavioral of young people at risk of, or already engaged in, criminal activity.

Specifically, we ask: 1) What is the effect of community service on pro-social behavior? 2) What are the effects of the first police officer from a given minority community, on schooling, crime and labor market outcomes, for youth in that same community? 3) Does the type of workplace matter for the success of youth employment programs, in terms of crime prevention and labor market attachment?

We combine Swedish administrative data with experimental and quasi-experimental variation to isolate the causal effect of these policies.

The results will be useful for policy questions such as the effects, beyond criminal activity, of policing on minority communities, how to improve schooling outcomes for teenagers from disadvantaged groups, and how juvenile criminal sanctions should be designed for lasting impact.