TY  - JOUR
AU  - Brezina,Timothy
AU  - Tekin,Erdal
AU  - Topalli,Volkan
TI  - "Might Not Be a Tomorrow": A Multi-Methods Approach to Anticipated Early Death and Youth Crime
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 14279
PY  - 2008
Y2  - August 2008
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w14279
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w14279.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Timothy Brezina
Department of Criminal Justice
1227 Urban Life Building
Atlanta GA 30302-4018
E-Mail: tbrezina@gsu.edu

Erdal Tekin
Department of Economics
Andrew Young School of Policy Studies
Georgia State University
P.O. Box 3992
Atlanta, GA 30302-3992
Tel: 404/413-0163
Fax: 404/413-0145
E-Mail: tekin@gsu.edu

Volkan Topalli
Department of Criminal Justice
1227 Urban Life Building
Atlanta GA 30302-4018
E-Mail: vtopalli@gsu.edu
AB  - A number of researchers point to the anticipation of early death, or a sense of "futurelessness," as a contributing factor to youth crime and violence.  Young people who perceive a high probability of early death, it is argued, may have little reason to delay gratification for the promise of future benefits, as the future itself is discounted.  Consequently, these young people tend to pursue high-risk behaviors associated with immediate rewards, including crime and violence.  Although existing studies lend empirical support to these arguments and show a statistical relationship between anticipated early death and youth crime, this support remains tentative.  Moreover, a number of questions remain regarding the interpretation of this relationship, the meanings that offenders attach to the prospect of early death, and the causal mechanisms that link anticipated early death to youth crime.  In this paper, we address the limitations of previous studies using a multi-methods approach, involving the analyses of national survey data and in-depth interviews with active street offenders.
ER  -