Does Child Labor Reduce Youth Crime?

In: Kyklos: international review for social sciences, Volume 60, Issue 4, p. 559-573

Abstract

SUMMARYThis paper explores the nexus between youth‐employment, youth‐crime, and socialization in the context of the child labor debate in economics. The analysis draws upon both economics and sociology and suggests that neglect of the socializing benefits of youth (and perhaps child) employment in the economics literature is a potentially important lacuna. The sociology literature contains evidence that youth‐labor reduces criminal propensity. If this effect extends to the youth who are the subject of the economics child‐labor literature, potentially large private and external benefits of some‐types of child‐labor have been ignored. After presenting evidence of the linkage between youth‐socialization, youth‐employment, and youth‐crime we consider possible implications for child‐labor policies.