THE CASCADING EFFECTS OF ADOLESCENT GANG INVOLVEMENT ACROSS THE LIFE COURSE*

The short‐run deleterious effects of gang involvement during adolescence have been well researched. However, surprisingly little empirical attention has been devoted to understanding how gang involvement in adolescence influences life chances and criminal behavior in adulthood. Drawing on the life‐course perspective, this study argues that gang involvement will lead to precocious transitions that, in turn, will have adverse consequences on the fulfillment of adulthood roles and statuses in the economic and family spheres. Moreover, problems fulfilling these conventional roles are hypothesized then to lead to sustained involvement in criminal behavior in adulthood. Using data from a sample of males from the Rochester Youth Development Study, results from structural equation models support the indirect link between gang membership and noncriminal and criminal outcomes in adulthood. Specifically, gang involvement leads to an increase in the number of precocious transitions experienced that result in both economic hardship and family problems in adulthood. These failures in the economic and family realms, in turn, contribute to involvement in street crime and/or arrest in adulthood. Implications for the criminal desistance process are discussed.     

Identities Through Time: An Exploration of Identity Change as a Cause of Desistance

Research examining desistance from crime (the process of decreasing offending over time) has increased over the last 20?years. However, many explanations of desistance remain somewhat exploratory. One theory in particular that is becoming more prominent includes the idea that desistance is caused by a change in identity (e.g. from deviant to pro-social). While qualitative support has been found for this proposition, prospective quantitative studies have not been conducted on this theory. This study addresses that gap by examining how pro-social identities change over time and whether these changes correspond to desistance from crime. The results of growth curve models indicate that pro-social identity increases over time and is a robust predictor of criminal behavior over the life course. These results offer support to identity theories of desistance and also provide important information for correctional programming.     

SELF‐CONTROL,SOCIAL BONDS,AND DESISTANCE: A TEST OF LIFE‐COURSE INTERDEPENDENCE

Theoretical debates and empirical tests on the explanation of stability and change in offending over time have been ongoing for over a decade pitting Gottfredson and Hirschi's (1990) criminal propensity model against Sampson and Laub's (1993) life‐course model of informal social control. In 2001, Wright and his colleagues found evidence of a moderating relationship between criminal propensity, operationalized as self‐control, and prosocial ties on crime, a relationship they term life‐course interdependence. The current study extends their research by focusing on this moderating relationship and the developmental process of desistance from crime among serious juvenile delinquents. Contrary to the life‐course interdependence hypothesis, the results indicate that whereas self‐control and social bonds are strongly related to desistance from crime, there is no evidence of a moderating relationship between these two factors on desistance among this sample. The implications of this research for life‐course theories of crime, future research, and policies regarding desistance are discussed.     

Female repeat offenders negotiating identity

This study examines the process of identity negotiation for Israeli female ex-convicts who were separated for extensive periods of time from their children and eventually lost custody over them. The content analysis of in-depth interviews reveals that these women were able to reconstruct their biographies and retrospectively account for their crimes and drug addiction in terms of the sexual, physical, and economic abuse they had endured and by appeal to higher loyalties, their children who they had to provide for. However, when having to account for their fallings as mothers, all biographical reconstruction, external blame, and accusation collapsed. Looking at themselves through their children's eyes, female offenders were simply unable to renegotiate the imputed identity of incompetent mother. They could neither confront their children's anger nor explain to them why they had abandoned them. Permanently alienated from the center of motherhood, these women were doomed to an existential chaos.     

Decentering Motherhood: Reentry Strategies for Women on Parole and Probation

As the population of mothers under state supervision rapidly increases, it is necessary to document and analyze their experiences. This research contributes to the literature by exploring the experiences of such mothers, highlighting narratives from mothers who transitioned to a halfway house as part of their reintegration. We analyze how such mothers define good mothering and how they construct and manage their own mothering in light of their histories of drug use and criminal justice involvement, which often lead to prolonged absences from their children. The discourses of priority and presence dominate the mothers’ narratives, supported by expectations from both probation/parole and the halfway house. Collectively our data suggest that mothers engage in a complex negotiation between state supervision and motherhood that reimagines the nature and practice of good mothering and adapts strategies for fulfilling state obligations.     

Fearful futures and haunting histories in women's desistance from crime: A longitudinal study of desistance as an uncanny process*

Although desistance is increasingly recognized as a series of complex processes by which individuals transform from offenders into nonoffenders, few desistance scholars have studied this process in depth. In recent years, however, some have begun to explore how desistance is a process rife with setbacks and struggles. Through an analysis of repeated in-depth interviews with ten desisting women, in this study, we have found such struggles to be unsettling and outright frightening. Examples of this were prevalent throughout the women's narratives. The results of our analysis show how frightening aspects of desistance processes stem from making an unfamiliar, normative lifestyle familiar, while unfamiliarizing oneself with a familiar, deviant lifestyle. As such, desistance processes can be conceptualized as uncanny, that is, as pertaining to the frightening and uncertain. Although uncanniness is not a theoretical framework one tends to find in desistance research, it has the potential to develop the understanding of the struggles, fears, and anxieties of desistance processes. Through our analysis, we engage with how uncanniness can nuance established concepts in desistance research. Implications for theory as well as for criminal justice practice are discussed.     

Adult child-parent bonds and life course criminality

Parents and parenting practices are often implicated as predictors of early childhood offending in criminological research, but little is known about the role of parents in adulthood in promoting or inhibiting criminal behavior. As juveniles mature into adult roles, parents also continue to mature and interact with their children in numerous roles throughout the life course. Unlike peers and romantic partners, parents are not easily discarded. Adults who have built a good foundation with their parents, then, possess additional social capital that has the potential to better adult life course outcomes, including criminal behavior. Social bonds formed within romantic relationships and stable employment have been the dominant factors identified within criminological literature in promoting criminal desistance, but in today's society with high rates of divorce and an unstable low-skilled job market, parents of origin may be an important stabilizing force in the lives of adults, particularly those lacking other conventional bonds. Using three waves of data from the Ohio Lifecourse Study, a project that spans some twenty-one years, the findings showed that strong relationships with parents are a significant predictor of criminal desistance for adult children, mainly through the emotional benefits these relationships have for the adult children. Furthermore, the data revealed that the adult child-parent relationship is a stronger predictor of desistance among the subjects with poor romantic relationship bonds. Implications for the life course theory are discussed.     

CHANGES IN CRIMINAL OFFENDING AROUND THE TIME OF JOB ENTRY: A STUDY OF EMPLOYMENT AND DESISTANCE

Does employment promote desistance from crime? Most perspectives assume that individuals who become employed are less likely to offend than those who do not. The critical issue has to do with the timing of employment transitions in the criminal trajectory. The turning point hypothesis expects reductions in offending after job entries, whereas the maturation perspective assumes desistance to have occurred ahead of successful transitions to legitimate work. Focusing on a sample of recidivist males who became employed during 2001–2006 (N = 783), smoothing spline regression techniques were used to model changes in criminal offending around the point of entry to stable employment. Consistent with the maturation perspective, the results showed that most offenders had desisted prior to the employment transition and that becoming employed was not associated with further reductions in criminal behavior. Consistent with the turning point hypothesis, we identified a subset of offenders who became employed during an active phase of the criminal career and experienced substantial reductions in criminal offending thereafter. However, this trajectory describes less than 2 percent of the sample. The patterns observed in this research suggest that transition to employment is best viewed as a consequence rather than as a cause of criminal desistance.     

Being Superwoman: Low Income Mothers Surviving Problem Drinking and Intimate Partner Violence

We elucidate ways mothers think about behavior change related to heavy drinking and violent relationships. A purposive sample of 32 women, predominantly black and low income, were identified as engaging in both problem drinking on the AUDIT and experiencing severe partner violence on the Conflict Tactic Scale. Narratives from audiotaped Motivational Interviewing sessions conducted in an urban emergency department were transcribed, inductively coded and examined through the lens of feminist standpoint theory. Our analysis suggests motherhood is a powerful motivator for positive change, but multiple barriers combine to prevent self-protection and modification of adverse behaviors among this vulnerable population. Interventions to help low-income mothers dealing with relationship violence and substance abuse should also address the structural violence and substantive barriers these mothers face. Further work should examine the power of personal narratives related to being a good mother on women’s ability to improve life circumstances for themselves and their children.     

A Feasibility Pilot Intervention Program to Teach Parenting Skills to Mothers of Poly-Victimized Children

The Parceria (Partnership) Project is a Brazilian intervention program designed for mothers with an intimate partner violence (IPV) history. Its short term goal is to teach parenting skills to abused women, and in the long term, to prevent behavioral problems in their children. The objective of this pilot study was to evaluate the feasibility of the Parceria Project with mothers of children who had experienced multiple forms of maltreatment (poly-victimization), as it was expected that most of the mothers would also have a history of IPV. Seventeen Brazilian mothers took part in this intervention. They completed several types of evaluation. The intervention program using a cognitive-behavioral model took place in each family’s home. All mothers completed the intervention and evaluated the project positively. The study showed that it is feasible to conduct interventions with families who face severe psychosocial risk such as family violence.     

The effect of maternal incarceration on adult offspring involvement in the criminal justice system

Researchers have estimated that 63 percent of incarcerated women have one or more minor children and most reported living with their children prior to incarceration (Mumola, 2000). Unfortunately, children of incarcerated parents have been a relatively invisible population in the research on the collateral consequences of incarceration. The goal of the current study was to examine the long-term effect of maternal incarceration on adult offspring involvement in the criminal justice system using data from the mother child sample of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979. Based on existing research, it was hypothesized that the adult offspring of incarcerated mothers would be more likely to have been convicted of a crime or to be sentenced to probation. The effect of maternal incarceration on correlates of criminal behavior in adolescence and early adulthood (e.g., negative peer influences, positive home environment) was also modeled to assess possible indirect effects. The results highlighted the direct effect of incarceration on adult offspring involvement in the criminal justice system, but parental incarceration had little association with correlates of criminal behavior.     

Post-Separation Abuse of Women and their Children: Boundary-Setting and Family Court Utilization among Victimized Mothers

Continued abuse of themselves and their children is a concern for many mothers leaving intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetrating husbands. This research examines women’s responses to abuse committed by ex-husbands with whom they had undergone custody disputes. In-depth, qualitative interviews were conducted with 19 mothers who had divorced IPV-perpetrating husbands between 1 and 3 years prior. Participants were located through publicly available family court divorce records and interviews were examined using analytic induction. Women’s strategies to protect themselves and their children from abuse involved setting boundaries to govern their interactions with ex-husbands. Mothers often turned to family court for assistance in setting boundaries to keep children safe, but found that family court did not respond in ways they believed protected their children. Conversely, when women turned to the justice system for restraining orders or called the police for help against IPV, they generally found the justice system responsive.     

An Evaluation of a Parent Group for Survivors of Intimate Partner Violence

Researchers continue to demonstrate the significant physical and mental health consequences to women who experience intimate partner violence (IPV) and children exposed to IPV. However, more research is needed to examine group interventions that support mothers, their children, and the parent-child relationship in the aftermath of IPV. We analyzed data provided by women who participated in a 12-week parent group. The objectives of the parent group were for mothers to better understand their children’s developmental experience of IPV and to break the secret of domestic violence in their family. The sample included 15 women who completed the group and the baseline, midpoint, and endpoint surveys. Eleven of these women also completed a semi-structured interview three months following the group. Survey items and interview topics focused on group process and outcomes. Women reported the group helped them feel less alone in their experience of IPV and they valued having a space to learn and discuss new concepts that related to their experiences and their children’s experiences of IPV. They reported more confidence in identifying their child’s feelings and being a safe person to whom their children could express their anger. Women also reported they developed greater coping and communication tools, and a strengthened mother-child bond, through group participation. Group interventions are an important format for learning and sharing for some mothers who have experienced IPV, though more evaluation is needed on what components of these group interventions are the most supportive of mothers’ healing and growth.

     

LONG‐TERM CRIME DESISTANCE AND RECIDIVISM PATTERNS—EVIDENCE FROM THE ESSEX COUNTY CONVICTED FELON STUDY*

Two conflicting definitions of desistance exist in the criminology literature. The first definition is instantaneous desistance in which an offender simply chooses to end a criminal career instantaneously moving to a zero rate of offending ( Blumstein et al., 1986 ). The second definition views desistance as a process by which the offending rate declines steadily over time to zero or to a point close to zero ( Bushway et al., 2001 ; Laub and Sampson, 2001 ; Leblanc and Loeber, 1998 ). In this article, we capitalize on the underlying assumptions of several parametric survival distributions to gain a better understanding of which of these models best describes actual patterns of desistance. All models are examined using 18 years of follow‐up data on a cohort of felony convicts in Essex County, NJ. Our analysis leads us to three conclusions. First, some people have already desisted at the beginning of the follow‐up period, which is consistent with the notion of “instantaneous desistance.” Second, a three‐parameter model that allows for a turning point in the risk of recidivism followed by a long period of decline fits the data best. This conclusion suggests that for those offenders active at the start of the study period, the risk of recidivism is declining over time. However, we also find that a simpler two‐group model fits the data almost as well and gains superiority in the later years of follow‐up. This last point is particularly relevant as it suggests that the observed gradual decline in the hazard over time is a result of a compositional effect rather than of a pattern of individually declining hazards.     

MARRIAGE,IN‐LAWS,AND CRIME: THE CASE OF DELINQUENT BROTHERS‐IN‐LAW*

With marriage comes in‐laws, and if the in‐laws include delinquent males, their delinquency could affect the prosocial effects of the given marriage. In this article, I focus on the effect of having a convicted brother‐in‐law as a general indicator of this broader phenomenon of family‐formation processes impairing the positive impact of marriage on crime desistance. I use registry data on all men from birth cohorts 1965–1975 in Denmark (N = 69,066) to show that when a man marries, his new family ties to delinquent brother(s)‐in‐law do indeed hinder his criminal desistance. The results that take into account the characteristics of husbands, wives, their shared family‐formation process, and the criminality of male family members suggest that 1) family dynamics tend to keep criminality within family networks and 2) influences from one's broader social network through marriage are important for the protective effects of marriage. Analyses of previous conviction, co‐offending between a man and his brother‐in‐law, as well as analyses of in‐laws who reside in close proximity confirm the two mentioned main findings. In all, the findings reported in this article add to our understanding of the processes by which families are tied, and how these family‐formation processes influence men's behavior.     

Earnings prospects,matching effects,and the decision to terminate a criminal career

This study represents an effort to investigate the age pattern of criminal involvement from an economist's perspective. It presents a dynamic stochastic model of sequential search and match evaluation which is used to explain the reasons for, and the timing of, the decision to terminate a criminal career. The behavioral implications derived from the theoretical model are tested using individual National Longitudinal Survey of Youth data. Estimation results strongly support the prediction of a negative relation between theoption value of retaining a criminal career and desistance decisions. More specifically, the effects of current and future expected criminal earnings are shown to be negative, substantial, and statistically significant in determining desistance probabilities. Retiring behavior is also significantly responsive to variables measuring personal costs of punishment and the availability and attractiveness of a legal income-generating activity in ways consistent with theoretical expectations.     

Making mothers: parenting classes in a women’s jail

In the wake of the War on Drugs, more mothers are incarcerated in US prisons and jails than ever before. Parenting classes have become ubiquitous in penal facilities that incarcerate women, but research about mothers’ experience in parenting class is limited to measures of efficacy about things like parenting attitudes and mental-health indicators. This study supplements existing research by adding an ethnographic lens to women’s experiences with parenting classes during incarceration. Drawing on 18 months of participant observation in the women’s unit of a county jail and 83 interviews with incarcerated mothers, I analyze incarcerated mothers’ experiences with parenting classes. Staff and inmates used parenting classes to create ways for women to do mothering during incarceration. Mothering in your head, longing to mother, and guilt as mothering enabled incarcerated mothers to maintain their identities as mothers despite their separation from their children. However, these practices could also be poor substitutes for spending time with children and did not necessarily reflect the reality of women’s lives outside of jail. These ways of doing mothering from afar were also a form of social control for the penal institution, as these mothering behaviors were consistent with being a good inmate.     

“I Didn’t Want To Put Them Through That”: The Influence Of Children on Victim Decision-making in Intimate Partner Violence Cases

For mothers, intimate partner violence (IPV) presents a concern not only for their own well-being but also for that of their children who are exposed to the violence and its aftermath. In focus groups with adult women (N = 39) across three jurisdictions who had experienced legal system intervention for IPV victimization, mothers raised unsolicited concerns about the negative effects of IPV exposure on their children. These comments were not prompted by the facilitator but were raised by women in all seven of the focus groups during discussions about motivations and barriers to participation in prosecution of their abusive partners. The overall message was that victims with children felt very conflicted. Children both facilitate and inhibit leaving the abusive relationship. Mothers wanted to spare their children from harmful effects of violence but also wanted to keep their families together and protect their children from potential agitation and instability caused by legal system involvement. Participants described how fears and threats of involvement from child protective services inhibited help-seeking while simultaneously voicing a desire for services that would help their children. More research is needed to help service providers understand the quagmire mothers who are victims of IPV encounter regarding their children’s wellbeing.     

Parental Representations in the Play of Preschool Aged Witnesses of Marital Violence

The play of young children has long been used clinically to understand children’s experiences and inner feelings. More recently, children’s play has been examined quantitatively to understand differences due to varying backgrounds, family relationships, etc. Forty preschool children (21 girls and 19 boys) aged 27 to 71 months from families with histories of domestic violence were observed using a play interview, The MacArthur Story Stem Battery, to determine if severity of violence, frequency of visitation with their previously violent fathers, and mother-child relationship functioning impacted how parents were represented in play. Overall, girls represented their parents more positively regardless of other family circumstances. Boys, especially those who did not visit regularly with their fathers, had negative representations of their mothers. Severity of violence did not predict negative parental representations in the sample.