Journal of Developmental and Life-Course Criminology最新文献

The objective of this study is to validate how well aggregate change is approximated using group-based trajectory modeling and latent transition analysis. The Pathways to Desistance dataset was analyzed. Group-based trajectory modeling was used to identify patterns of street time data. Analyses were carried out for the full dataset from start to finish and separate analyses were carried out for the early half and late half of the study period. The data was split and latent transition analysis was used to determine how well trajectory groups in the full-data approximated change observed in the early-data to late-data models. Regression was used to determine the robustness of these change effects with covariates controlled for. A five-group model was identified in the early-data that was very similar to the model identified in the full-data. An eight-group model was identified in the late-data though. The change trajectories characterized by declines in recidivism were predictive of abstaining in the late-data model in a manner consistent with the change predicted by the declines observed in the early-data model. Latent transition analysis may help validate change observed in group-based trajectory modeling. Group-based trajectory modeling may provide more accurate approximation of aggregate change than stability.

Youth with psychopathic traits are at risk of engaging in physical aggression and being exposed to victimization from peers, which, in turn, is associated with symptoms of depression. The mechanisms underlying the associations between psychopathic traits, peer victimization, and subsequent depression symptoms remain unclear. Using data from the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Child Development (n = 2,120 youth; 49.1% female) and path analyses, we tested whether peer victimization (at 10–12 years) mediated the associations between psychopathic traits in childhood (at 6–8 years) and depression symptoms in adolescence (at 15–17 years). We also examined if the association between psychopathic traits and peer victimization was moderated by child sex, anxiety symptoms, and physical aggression. Teachers assessed psychopathic traits and peer victimization in childhood. Participants reported on their depression symptoms in adolescence. Findings showed that the association between childhood psychopathic traits and depression symptoms in adolescence was mainly indirect and (partly) operated via peer victimization. This indirect association appeared to be particularly salient for children who manifested low levels of physical aggression. The association between psychopathic traits and later depression symptoms via peer victimization could be less typical of children with high levels of physical aggression. This study highlights the importance of the mediating role of peer victimization and the moderating role of physical aggression when examining the association between psychopathic traits and subsequent depression symptoms.

Family reaction to LGBTQ + identity is a complex developmental experience that can lead to various outcomes for LGBTQ + people. Prior scholarship has identified family rejection as a risk factor for poor mental, physical, and social outcomes and family acceptance as a protective factor. However, little scholarship has considered the developmental role of family reaction to LGBTQ + identity on offending and desistance trajectories or explored the experiences with family reaction among LGBTQ + people who have had contact with the criminal legal system. This paper addresses this gap in the literature by centering the role of family reaction to LGBTQ + identity among formerly incarcerated LGBTQ + people. More specifically, this paper draws on original data collected from life history interviews with 25 formerly incarcerated LGBTQ + people. This qualitative work considers (1) their experiences with family reactions, (2) family reaction as a developmental turning point, and (3) navigating the criminal legal system with complex family dynamics. Findings indicated that the majority of the sample encountered some form of rejection (subtle and/or explicit) from their families, which was shaped by other LGBTQ + family members and generational, structural, religious, and political factors. Family reaction functioned as a developmental turning point that impacted offending (rejection) and desistance (acceptance). This work holds important policy implications, including the need for support groups for LGBTQ + people experiencing family rejection inside and outside of criminal legal contexts.

This study tested whether time spent on homework could be considered a turning point for youth with serious prior involvement in delinquency. A sample of 934 youth (809 boys, 125 girls) from the Pathways to Desistance study who attended a community or institutional school during baseline and Wave 1 of the Pathways study served as participants in this study. The results of a four-equation path analysis revealed that while a change in time spent on homework did not have a direct effect on later delinquency, the indirect effect was significant when unsupervised routine activities served as a first-stage mediator and cognitive and moral agency served as second-stage mediators. Hence, spending an increased amount of time on homework was associated with a concurrent decrease in unsupervised routine activities with friends and led to increased levels of cognitive and moral agency in serious delinquent youth, which, in turn, appeared to contribute to heightened levels of future desistance. The key to understanding the turning point identified in this study appears to have been a change in unsupervised routine activities.

While conduct problem behaviour initiated in early childhood often escalates in frequency and seriousness through adolescence, a notable deceleration is typically seen by mid-adolescence. It has been hypothesised that prosocial behaviour, characterised by acts like sharing and comforting, may play a role in this deceleration. However, there is a distinct gap in the current literature when it comes to understanding the temporal dynamics between the acceleration of prosocial behaviours and the deceleration of conduct problem behaviour. This study seeks to bridge this gap. Using a General Cross-Lagged Panel Model (GCLM) and data from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC), we investigated temporal dynamics and sequence of how the acceleration of prosocial behaviour influences the deceleration of conduct problem behaviour between ages 4 and 15. Results indicate that increases in prosocial behaviour facilitate the deceleration of conduct problem behaviour, with increases in prosocial behaviour preceding decreases in conduct problem behaviour. Further, we show a cumulative effect of increases in prosocial behaviour on decreases in conduct problem behaviour over time. This knowledge provides a foundation for understanding how timely prevention and intervention strategies that include the mechanisms for increasing prosocial behaviour may interrupt the conduct problem behaviour trajectories of children and adolescents.

Criminologists have been interested in educational attainment for decades, a focus the field shares with virtually all other social and psychological sciences. The effects of formal schooling are expected to emerge across a host of developmental outcomes, but they are thought to be of particular relevance when assessing the risk of delinquency and crime. As time spent in formal schooling increases, the future risk of criminal offending is expected to fall precipitously. Associations between education and criminal outcomes have emerged repeatedly in the past, but evidence of causal effects remains in short order by comparison. In this study, register data from the Netherlands is used to examine the effects of educational attainment on offending in both adolescence and early adulthood. Using a population-wide discordant sibling design, our results are consistent with an argument that both education exposure and educational performance exert causal influences on criminal involvement. Until additional work of a similar nature is carried out, however, stronger assertions about the causal effects of education and crime remain premature.

Little is known about the conditions under which paternal incarceration is harmful to children and the mechanisms that explain this. This study addressed the family relationship context in the associations between paternal incarceration and adolescents’ internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors. Using data from the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a moderated mediation model was specified where paternal incarceration predicted adolescents’ internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors through family relationship quality, and where the mediating role of family relationship quality was moderated by pre-incarceration family relationship characteristics. Using latent profile analyses, three pre-incarceration family clusters were identified (“Cohesive”; “Fragmented”; “Disharmonious”). Analyses indicated that the association between paternal incarceration and family relationship quality differed across pre-incarceration family clusters and that decreased father-mother relationship quality mediated the negative association between paternal incarceration and adolescents’ internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors among “Cohesive” and “Fragmented”, but not among “Disharmonious” family clusters. The findings suggest that adolescents with more harmonious pre-incarceration family relationships are most vulnerable to the negative consequences of paternal incarceration. The study demonstrates the need to consider the family relationship context to understand the intergenerational consequences of incarceration.

The link between victimization and offending has been one of the most consistently revealed associations in criminology. Despite the wealth of literature produced on this topic, much still remains unknown, particularly from a developmental perspective. The current study expands on previous developmental research by examining whether low self-control, Machiavellianism, and callous-unemotional traits significantly distinguish victims or offenders from those who identify as both. To do so, we use data drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health). The analyses demonstrated that displaying high levels of low self-control and Machiavellianism differentiate victims from those who are victims and offenders. However, none of the investigated traits distinguished offenders from the overlap group. Additionally, the results were revealed to not be dependent upon the biological sex of the sample. We conclude by discussing the implications of the results of this study for future theory development and research.

It is well-established that unstructured unsupervised socializing with peers (UUS) motivates deviance while in that specific context. In this article, we extend this situational view by arguing that repeated UUS may also gradually shape adolescents’ norms and decision making beyond the situation. Specifically, we argue that UUS promotes short-term mindsets, i.e., an increased focus on present rewards at the expense of considering future consequences. We test this hypothesis with fixed-effects models, using longitudinal data from a representative sample of 1,675 adolescents from Zurich, Switzerland. Consistent with our preregistered predictions, more frequent UUS is associated with increased short-term mindsets. Thus, our finding suggests that the effects of UUS on later deviance might be driven by becoming more present-oriented. This link offers new insights into the developmental pathways toward adolescent delinquency and offers a potential target for intervention.

Human trafficking, among which domestic sex trafficking, is often only understood from the perspective of the victim, since research on traffickers — and in particular on their criminal careers — hardly exists. This is unfortunate, given that the wealth of longitudinal criminal career research on other offender populations has resulted in important theoretical and practical insights. This study therefore examines the offending trajectories of 630 domestic sex traffickers who were brought to court in the Netherlands, based on longitudinal judicial data. The results show that they are a heterogeneous and versatile offender group, similar to general offenders. A group-based trajectory analysis identified four subgroups following different offending trajectories between ages 12 and 35. Low-rate offenders (36%) start their criminal career late, mostly in adulthood, and for a relatively large share of them human trafficking is their first offense. Early-peak offenders (28%) are the youngest human traffickers and late-peak offenders (21%), after a slow start, do not seem to desist from offending on a regular base in adulthood. High-rate-persistent offenders (15%) have the youngest age of onset of crime in general and account for 40% of all criminal cases. On average, they have already more than 20 criminal cases registered against them, before committing human trafficking. This most problematic subgroup seems to be larger among domestic sex traffickers, than among general offenders. More research on criminal careers of domestic sex traffickers (and human traffickers in general) is needed, and should also focus on risk and protective factors that influence their offending trajectories.