Objectives

We tested the impact of juvenile arrest on asset accumulation, debt accumulation, and net worth from ages 20–30. We also examined whether indicators of family formation, school and work attainment, and subsequent justice system contacts explained any effects.

Methods

We used longitudinal data on 7916 respondents from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 Cohort. Our treatment variable was a dichotomous indicator of whether respondents were arrested as juveniles. Our focal outcomes were combined measures of the values of 10 types of assets, 6 types of debt, and net worth (assets minus debt) at ages 20, 25, and 30. We used propensity score methods to create matched groups of respondents who were and were not arrested as juveniles, and we compared these groups on the outcomes using multilevel growth curve analyses.

Results

Arrested juveniles went on to have lower assets, debts, and net worth during young adulthood compared to non-arrested juveniles. These differences were most pronounced at age 30. The differences were largely explained by educational attainment, weeks worked, and income.

Conclusions

The fact that juvenile arrest predicted early adult economic attainment net of 43 matching covariates provides strong evidence that these effects are not merely artifacts of selection. The additional finding that education, employment, and income explain much of the juvenile arrest effect highlights several potential areas of intervention for protecting young arrestees’ later net worth.

中文翻译：

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青少年逮捕与后来的经济成就：关系的强度和机制

目标

我们测试了20-30岁少年逮捕对资产积累，债务积累和净资产的影响。我们还检查了家庭组成，学业和工作成就以及随后的司法制度接触指标是否能解释任何影响。

方法

我们使用了1997年全国青年纵向调查的7916名受访者的纵向数据。我们的治疗变量是回答者是否被捕为少年的二分指标。我们的主要结果是对20、25和30岁年龄段的10种资产，6种债务和资产净值（资产减去债务）的价值进行综合测量。我们使用倾向得分方法创建了匹配的受访者组并没有被捕为少年，我们使用多级生长曲线分析对这些组的结局进行了比较。

结果

与未逮捕的少年相比，被逮捕的少年在成年后的资产，债务和净资产都较低。这些差异在30岁时最为明显。差异主要是受教育程度，工作周数和收入所致。

结论

少年逮捕预测了43个匹配协变量的早期成人经济成就这一事实提供了有力的证据，表明这些影响不仅仅是选择的产物。教育，就业和收入可以解释青少年逮捕行为的大部分其他发现，突显了保护年轻被捕者后来的净资产的几个潜在干预领域。