And who they are Empirical work has shown that a number of individual characteristics are associated with offending. For example, crimes rates are higher for non-whites than for white people. Marriage has also been found to discourage involvement in crime. Delinquents disproportionately come from lower class and low income families. Their parents, if in employment, tend to be in low paid manual jobs.
Delinquents are also more likely to have convicted parents or delinquent older siblings.
Several studies have examined the link between the labour market and crime. Although there is as yet no consensus, many found that, at least to some extent, crime is related to unemployment, inequality and low wages. When all these factors are taken into account, the crime-age profiles are indeed substantially altered. Figure 3 shows that the two profiles now look very similar. Of course some of these characteristics matter more than others.