Mental and Physical Health, Psychosocial Maturity, and Desistance in Young Adulthood.

Recent theoretical and empirical work has drawn increased attention to the role that mental and physical health can play in promoting life-course success and desistance from crime. This study integrates literature on youth development with the health-based desistance framework to investigate a key developmental pathway through which health influences desistance among system-involved youth. Using multiple waves of data from the Pathways to Desistance Study, the current study uses generalized structural equation modeling to examine whether and to what extent mental and physical health influence offending and substance use directly and indirectly through psychosocial maturity. Findings indicate that both depression and poor health stall the development of psychosocial maturity, and that those with higher psychosocial maturity are less likely to engage in offending and substance use. The model provides general support for the health-based desistance framework, finding an indirect process linking better health states to normative developmental desistance processes. Results hold important implications for the development of age-graded policies and programs geared toward promoting desistance among serious adolescent offenders both within correctional and community settings.

Criminal Justice Contact Across Generations: Assessing the intergenerational Labeling Hypothesis.

PURPOSE: The present study assesses the intergenerational labeling hypothesis and examines whether the relationship between a child's involuntary contact with the police and subsequent offending depends on parental arrest history (and its timing in the life course of the child) and parent sex. METHODS: Using data from 312 parent-child dyads from the Rochester Youth Development Study and Rochester Intergenerational Study, generalized linear regression models estimate the main and interactive effects of a child's involuntary contact and parental arrest history on subsequent delinquency as well as potential mechanisms for deviance amplification. RESULTS: Main effects are consistent with labeling theory and moderation analyses reveal that the impact of involuntary contact on subsequent delinquency depends on parental arrest history. More specifically, contact with the police on subsequent offending is greater when the focal parent has an arrest history, regardless of when the most recent arrest occurs in the life course of the child. However, some differences in the magnitude of the exacerbating effect of recent parental arrest emerged. Results also speak to potential mechanisms across mother-child and father-child dyads with respect to deviance amplification. CONCLUSIONS: This research supports the life-course principles of "linked lives" and "timing in lives" and their application to labeling theory in an intergenerational context. To reduce deviance amplification, special attention should be paid to youth who experience a police contact in the context of a parental arrest history.

Exploring Intergenerational Continuity in Gang Membership.

Little is known regarding intergenerational continuity in gang membership. Qualitative literature is suggestive of intergenerational parallelism yet no known research examines the causal mechanisms associated with this cycle, if it even exists. Prospective, longitudinal data from the Rochester Youth Development Study (RYDS) and the Rochester Intergenerational Study (RIGS) assess intergenerational continuity in gang membership among 371 parent-child dyads in a series of logistic regressions accounting for moderating influences of parent sex, child sex, parent-child sex combinations, and level of contact. Path analyses reported herein explore whether parenting behaviors mediate the relationship between parent and child gang membership among fathers and mothers, respectively. Three key findings emerge. First, intergenerational continuity in gang membership exists between mothers and daughters and, conditional on contact, between fathers and sons. Second, maltreatment mediates some of this relationship among father-son dyads. Third, no pathways to daughter gang membership were identified among mothers. In sum, this study provides evidence of intergenerational continuity in gang membership and further highlights the importance of parent sex, child sex, and level of contact in intergenerational research. Future research should further explore the causal pathways between parent and child gang membership.

The Violent Victimization of Children, Adolescents, Adults, and the Elderly: Situational Characteristics and Victim Injury.

This study explores the nature and outcome of violent incidents experienced by child, adolescent, adult, and elderly victims. Data from the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) are used to determine whether there are differences in the situational characteristics-including location, time of day, weapons, and the victim-offender relationship-of violent victimization experiences across the 4 age groups, including whether situational characteristics influence the likelihood of victim injury. Results indicate that victim injury is most prevalent among adult victims and that the situational characteristics of violent incidents vary by victim age, as do the correlates of victim injury. These findings suggest that of the nature of violent victimization should be examined within the context of victim age, and supports research by scholars who have proposed a model of developmental victimology to identify age-specific victimization patterns.

The effects of police contact on trajectories of violence: a group-based, propensity score matching analysis.

This study uses a life course framework to investigate how police contacts may serve as a potential turning point in a violent crime trajectory. Drawing on the central ideas from deterrence and labeling theories, we determine whether individuals on different violent offending trajectories increase or decrease their offending following a police contact. Analyzing nine waves of data from the Rochester Youth Development Study, an integrated propensity score matching and latent class growth model was used. First, three violent trajectory groups emerged including high offenders, non-offenders, and low offenders. Second, after accounting for selection bias using propensity score matching procedures, experiencing a police contact increased the likelihood of future violent offending for the entire sample and for those who were on a low violent-offending trajectory specifically. These findings are interpreted as partial support for labeling theory. Limitations of the study and directions for future research are discussed.

Prenatal exposure to cigarette smoke and childhood externalizing behavioral problems: a propensity score matching approach.

We examined the possibility that the association between maternal smoking during pregnancy and childhood behavioral problems is the result of confounding. Data from the first three waves of the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study were analyzed. We estimated the association between maternal smoking during pregnancy and externalizing problems in three-year olds using a propensity score matching approach. After successfully matching children based on their mother's propensities to smoke during pregnancy, the results indicate that maternal cigarette smoking is related to childhood externalizing behavioral problems, but only among mothers who smoked more than a pack per day while pregnant. At lower levels of exposure, the association between exposure to cigarette smoke in utero and externalizing behavioral problems in childhood can be explained by confounding. The results of this study support prevention efforts intended to reduce prenatal exposure to cigarette smoke, especially by mothers who smoke heavily.

A gene X environment interaction between DRD2 and religiosity in the prediction of adolescent delinquent involvement in a sample of males.

Human behavioral phenotypes are the result of complex interactions between genotype and the environment. Still, much remains unknown about the gene X environmental basis to adolescent delinquent involvement. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, we examine whether a polymorphism in the dopamine D2 receptor (DRD2) gene interacts with religiosity to predict variation in adolescent delinquent involvement. The results of the analyses revealed a gene X environment interaction between the A-1 allele of DRD2 and religiosity in the prediction of adolescent delinquency. Limitations are noted, and the implications of the findings are discussed.