Neighborhood conditions matter for the employment of young people who have been involved in the justice system

Young people who have been involved with the criminal justice system are much more likely to be unemployed than those who have not. In new research, Lewis H. Lee, Minseop Kim, Catherine Carlson, Taylor Ellis, Karen Johnson, and Angela Pretz examined the role of neighborhoods in the employment of justice-involved young adults. They find that young adults who perceive worsening neighborhood conditions tend to work less for formal jobs, whereas a justice-involved young adult who has the same perception is more likely to work more for informal or under-the-table jobs.