On the relationship between cognitive abilities and life-course-persistent offending among a sample of African Americans: A longitudinal test of Moffitt's hypothesis

Prior criminological research showed that cognitive abilities were related to delinquent and criminal activity, primarily within adolescent samples. Moffitt's developmental taxonomy anticipates that cognitive abilities will relate to criminal activity differently throughout the population of offenders, mattering more for life-course-persistent than adolescence-limited offenders. Unfortunately, prior research had not examined in great detail the long-term influence of cognitive abilities on criminal activity from birth to adulthood nor had research explored this issue within an African American sample. In this study, data from the Philadelphia portion of the National Collaborative Perinatal Project (NCPP) were used to examine the long-term effect of cognitive abilities on criminal activity from birth to adulthood.     

Deterrence and arrest ratios

In the limited research on the origins of sanction threat perceptions, researchers have focused on either the effects of actively engaging in crime or the effects of formal sanctioning but rarely on both (i.e., the arrest ratio or the number of arrests relative to the number of crimes committed). This article extends this line of research by using a sample of Colorado inmates and measures arrest ratios and sanction perceptions for eight different crime types. Analyses reveal that the offenders report both significant experiential and arrest ratio effects. Theoretical and policy implications, limitations, and directions for future research are outlined.     

The relationship between life satisfaction, risk-taking behaviors, and youth violence

This study builds on existing criminological theories and examines the role of life satisfaction and self-control in explaining youth violence. Using data from a stratified cluster sample of 5,414 public high school students who responded to the South Carolina Youth Risk Behavior Survey, the study examines the relationship between adolescents'perceptions of life satisfaction, behavioral risky acts, and self-reported acts of violence. Analyses indicate that higher levels of life satisfaction are associated with lower violence. Participation in work and involvement in health-related risk-taking behaviors pertaining to sex, drugs, and alcohol are also associated with increased violence. The implications of these findings for criminological theory and for school-based violence prevention programs are discussed.     

Light as an Analogy for Cognition in Buddhist Idealism (Vijñānavāda)

In Sect. 1 an argument for Yogācāra Buddhist Idealism, here understood as the view that everything in the universe is of the nature of consciousness / cognition, is laid out. The prior history of the argument is also recounted. In Sect. 2 the role played in this argument by light as an analogy for cognition is analyzed. Four separate aspects of the light analogy are discerned. In Sect. 3, I argue that although light is in some ways a helpful analogy for the Buddhist Idealist, in other ways it is thoroughly inappropriate. At the end of the article I ask whether the lack of fit between light and cognition is unavoidable, or whether the Buddhist Idealists could have chosen a better analogy.     

Romantic Attachment as a Moderator of the Association Between Childhood Abuse and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms

Childhood abuse can have significant negative effects on survivors that often last into adulthood. The purpose of this study was to explore the role of romantic attachment in understanding the relationship between childhood abuse and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms in adulthood. Data for this study were taken from the first wave of a five-wave longitudinal study. The sample included 120 mothers in their third trimester of pregnancy. Regression analyses were conducted in order to examine adult romantic attachment as a possible protective or vulnerability factor. Main effects of attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance on PTSD symptoms were found, such that higher levels of attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance were related to more PTSD symptoms. Attachment avoidance moderated this relationship, such that child abuse was significantly related to greater PTSD symptoms in those with high attachment avoidance. Implications for attachment-based interventions are discussed.     

Offending and Early Death in the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development

Criminal offending has many negative outcomes. Researchers have recently begun to consider the impact offending has on offenders' health, with a few studies focusing on differential mortality risk. Yet, prior research has been limited due to selective samples, restricted range of follow-up time period, limited set of explanatory variables, and lack of theoretical guidance. This paper examines the risk of early death among 411 South London males in the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development followed into their late 50s. Attention is paid not only to differential risk of death between nonoffenders and offenders, but also to the risk within the population of offenders and through consideration of theoretical frameworks and associated predictor variables. Results show that high-rate chronic offenders evince the highest risk of death, an effect that continues even after controlling for childhood individual and environmental risk factors as well as participation in a range of analogous behaviors.     

Juvenile Arrest and Later Economic Attainment: Strength and Mechanisms of the Relationship

Journal of Quantitative Criminology - We tested the impact of juvenile arrest on asset accumulation, debt accumulation, and net worth from ages 20–30. We also examined whether indicators of...