For the past several years, Drs. Phillips and Votey have been collaborating on a set of studies using the National Longitudinal Survey as a data base to model the choice to engage in criminal behavior. Operating from a rational choice model of behavior but attentive to a broader range of social and economic variables than are often the focus of economic models, they have produced a number of important papers that look at the choice of criminal activity as a function of opportunities and of costs and rewards. They now plan to follow up on two of the most important issues that theoretically would explain youth crime: The first is to estimate the effects of past contact with the criminal justice system on present behavior controlling for such factors as schooling, achievement in school, and the individual attributes that determine the choices among school, work, and crime. The second is to test a model that decisions about work and crime are a continuous process. Their objective is to examine whether and under what circumstances crime is not a time- intensive activity that substitutes for work but an additional and complementary option to work and school. Drs. Phillips and Votey have already contributed significantly to unraveling the causes of crime. This research holds considerable promise of further illuminating the theoretical and empirical dimensions of criminal behavior among juveniles and young adults who vary by age, race, sex, and a broad array of individual characteristics. To date, no one using individual data has successfully evaluated the contributions of deterrence effects, aspects of family and other economic support, and social and moral factors on the choices among school, work, and crime with models where such activities do not need to be mutually exclusive. Also, the decision to integrate a broader range of potential influences explicitly into the choice process is a major advance in assessing the very real social, psychological, and economic trade-offs involved in crime.
