Crime and legal work are not mutually exclusive choices but represent a con
tinuum of legal and illegal income-generating activities. The links between
crime and legal work involve trade-offs among crime returns, punishment co
sts, legal work opportunity costs, and tastes and preferences regarding bot
h types of work. Rising crime rates in the 1980s in the face of rising inca
rceration rates suggest that the threat of punishment is not the dominant c
ost of crime. Crime rates are inversely related to expected legal wages, pa
rticularly among young males with limited job skills or prospects. Recent e
thnographic research shows that involvement in illegal work often is motiva
ted by low wages and harsh conditions in legal work. Many criminal offender
s "double up" in both leg al work and crime, either concurrently or sequent
ially. This overlap suggests a fluid and dynamic interaction between legal
and illegal work. Market wages and job opportunities interact with social a
nd legal pressures to influence decisions to abandon crime for legal work.
Explanations of the patterns of legal and illegal work should be informed b
y econometric, social structural, and labeling theories. The continuity of
legal and illegal work, suggests the importance of illegal wages in researc
h and theory on criminal decision making.