Doctoral Dissertations

Date of Award

5-2001

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

Sociology

Major Professor

Michael L. Benson

Committee Members

Neal Shover, Donald W. Hastings, Greer Litton Fox

Abstract

The most dominant cultural theme in the United States, one that impacts political, social, and personal aspects of individual lives, is the American Dream. In the race toward the American Dream, individuals' starting positions significantly influence where they finish. Stratification researchers have consistently found that race, social class, and family background have an impact on the economic, educational, and social statuses that individuals reach in adulthood. In addition to background factors, many major life events that individuals experience serve to limit or enhance their ability to achieve various economic and social goals.

One major life event that is infrequently studied is contact with the criminal justice system. In his recent work on "criminal embeddedness" Hagan (1993) argues that contact with the criminal justice system has a "snowballing" effect in that each additional arrest, conviction, and year spent in prison decreases life chances. The formal sanctioning of individuals by the state serves to trap or enmesh individuals in the criminal justice system. Criminologists employing a life-course approach are coming to view criminal embeddedness as a major life event that may affect adult positions in society.

Using data from a study of 4,445 males convicted in federal courts, I examine the adult consequences of criminal embeddedness. Specifically, I study the effects of age of onset, number of prior arrests, total time incarcerated, early arrest, and early incarceration on adult financial well-being, occupational stability and community involvement, while controlling for individual background variables, educational attainment, and age.

Overall, results provide strong support for Hagan's concept of criminal embeddedness. Contact with the criminal justice system appears to have a strong, deleterious effect on individuals' financial well-being and occupational stability when using continuous and age-graded measures of criminal embeddedness. For community involvement, I find that the measures of criminal embeddedness are less important as predictors.

Results also demonstrate that race, educational attainment, and age are significant predictors of financial well-being. Blacks appear to face a sizable disadvantage compared to whites in their quest for financial and occupational stability. Regardless of race, younger, less educated individuals have significantly lower levels of financial well-being, job stability, and community involvement than older and more educated individuals.

Despite the vast monetary resources involved, America's imprisonment binge has had only minimal effects on crime and victimization rates. Most studies show that the unprecedented growth of the criminal justice enterprise has done little to deter individuals from committing future criminal acts. In this study, I focus on the effects of criminal embeddedness on non-criminal adult outcomes. I find that contact with the criminal justice system has a consistent depressing effect on the adult lives of individuals, especially their opportunities for financial well-being and occupational stability.

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