Whatever Happened to Yesterday's Rebels? Longitudinal Effects of Youth Delinquency on Education and Employment*

This paper examines whether and how teen delinquency is consequential for a variety of educational and employment outcomes. From the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth we measure five forms of delinquency from 1979 when respondents were 14–17 years old, and investigate whether they predict five different outcomes when those individuals were aged twenty-five to thirty. We measure delinquency as the prevalence of skipping school, drug use, violent behavior, engaging in property crime, and contact with the criminal justice system. Using a variety of regression models, we explore whether delinquency has negative zero-order effects, and negative partial effects net of standard status attainment variables. We find that all types of delinquency have consistently significant and negative impacts on educational attainment among both males and females, net of status attainment variables. Delinquency also has a fairly consistent impact on male occupational outcomes, but has weaker effects on female occupational outcomes. Overall, the data suggest that delinquency has autonomous and negative effects on later life chances. We discuss these findings in light of links between status attainment models and theories of crime and delinquency.