The effects of marriage and parenthood on offending levels over time among juvenile offenders across race and ethnicity

Abstract

In criminal careers research, reasons why offenders stop offending are of importance. This study tests Sampson and Laub's age-graded theory of informal social control using a nationally representative contemporaneous sample and explores two possible turning points in the life course of individuals that could lead to desistance: marriage and parenthood. Racial and ethnic differences in the impact of these social bonds are also analyzed. In mixed support of the theory, marriage is found to lead to changes in levels of offending among whites and Hispanics but not blacks. Parenthood leads to decreases in offending among whites but not blacks or Hispanics. These results suggest possible modifications are needed to Sampson and Laub's theory. A discussion of these findings is presented.

Keywords::

• desistance
• marriage
• parenthood
• race/ethnicity

Acknowledgements

This research uses data from Add Health, a program project directed by Kathleen Mullan Harris and designed by J. Richard Udry, Peter S. Bearman, and Kathleen Mullan Harris at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and funded by grant P01-HD31921 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, with cooperative funding from 23 other federal agencies and foundations. Special acknowledgment is due Ronald R. Rindfuss and Barbara Entwisle for assistance in the original design. Information on how to obtain the Add Health data files is available on the Add Health website (http://www.cpc.unc.edu/addhealth). No direct support was received from grant P01-HD31921 for this analysis.

The author would like to thank Dr. Alex Piquero, Dr. Michael Leiber, and three anonymous reviewers for their useful suggestions on this article.

Notes

^1. Attrition analyses using t-tests for Wave I variables were ran. These tests revealed the 748 missing cases had higher Wave I delinquency, were more likely to be Hispanic, had lower SES, were more likely to come from a non-traditional family, and were more likely to be male. Further, a recent study by Barnes and Beaver (2012) found those who dropped out by Wave IV were more likely to have lower IQ scores than those who were retained by the study. To the author's knowledge, no other information is available to date that describes other possible attrition issues specifically related to this dataset.

^2. Recall that those who abstained from delinquency were dropped from the analysis.

^3. Alternate analyses were run utilizing a binary measure of changes in offending levels. The change score method was still used and those who decreased their criminal behavior from Wave I to Wave IV were coded as 1. Those who had no change or an increase in their criminal behavior were coded as 0. Logistic regressions were used to analyze changes in criminal behavior from adolescence to early adulthood for the full sample as well as racial/ethnic subsamples. The results were substantially similar and though not presented here, are available upon request.

^4. A z-test to assess for significant differences on living with their spouse between whites and Hispanics was conducted (Clogg et al.1995, Paternoster et al.1998). It was found that living with their spouse was not more protective of future offending for whites than for Hispanics.

^5. At the suggestion of a reviewer, additional analyses were conducted that estimated the joint effects of marriage and parenthood. As both marriage and parenthood measures were dichotomous in nature, several new variables were created for these additional analyses. The first set utilized a new variable, termed Marriage/Parenthood Confluence 1, whereby 0 was given to those not currently living with their spouse and not living with their child, 1 was given to those currently living with their spouse or living with their child, and 3 was given to those living with their spouse and living with their child. The second set of models used a similar new variable, called Marriage/Parenthood Confluence 2, whereby 0 indicated those not currently living with their spouse and/or not living with a child and 1 indicated those living with their spouse and living with their child. The results of these analyses were substantively similar to those presented in the main body of the text, regardless of which Confluence variable was used. The presence of the social bonds was a significant predictor of decreases in offending over time in the full model. Within the racial/ethnic groups, it led to decreases in offending for whites but not blacks or Hispanics. These results are not presented here but are available upon request.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jessica M. Craig

Jessica Craig is a doctoral student at the University of Texas at Dallas. Her research interests include life course criminology and crime in emerging adulthood. Some of her recent work has been published in Deviant Behavior, Crime & Delinquency, and Armed Forces & Society.