Examining the Longitudinal Connection Between Adolescent Delinquency and Risky Sexual Behaviors in a Sample of Males and Females.

Adolescence is a time period that is highlighted by widespread involvement in delinquent behaviors. The long-term consequences associated with engaging in such behaviors is not entirely understood. There is some research showing, though, that adolescents who are involved in delinquency are at-risk for also engaging in an assortment of risky sexual behaviors. Whether this association is causal or the result of selection/confounding remains unclear. The current study sought to add to the literature on this topic by examining whether measures of adolescent delinquency predict later-life involvement in risky sexual behaviors (number of sexual partners, number of one-night stands, and being diagnosed with a sexually transmitted infection) in a sample from the United States. To do so, data drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) were analyzed (N ranging from 5018 to 5964). The results revealed statistically significant associations between adolescent delinquency and risky sexual behaviors for males and females even after controlling for levels of self-control, exposure to peer substance use, parental socialization, and neighborhood disadvantage. These results suggest that the association between delinquent involvement and risky sexual behaviors is robust and future research should begin to systematically examine the developmental nature of this association.

Involvement in Crime and Delinquency and the Development of Technological and Computer Skills: A Longitudinal Analysis.

A body of research has revealed that involvement in crime and delinquency is associated with a wide number of social, economic, and health consequences. The current study built off this knowledge base and examined whether measures of adolescent violent delinquency and contact with the criminal justice system were related to the access of basic, and experience with, technology, and computers. To do so, longitudinal data drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) were analyzed. The results revealed that self-reported violent delinquency in adolescence was associated with a decreased probability of owning a computer and having an email account 10 to 12 years into the future. Additionally, measures of contact with the criminal justice system, low self-control, delinquent peers, and governmental public assistance were also associated with the probability of owning a computer and having an email account.

Adolescent Delinquency and Adulthood Economic Disadvantage and Job Benefits: Results From a Longitudinal Sample of Males and Females.

There is a long history of examining the connection between crime and delinquency and economic well-being and employment quality. Despite this vast literature, there still remains unanswered questions surrounding these associations, including whether the timing of adolescent delinquency is associated with adulthood economic disadvantage and job quality, whether different types of adolescent delinquency maintain differential associations with measures of economic disadvantage and employment quality in adulthood, and whether any associations between delinquency and economics/employment are invariant between males and females. The current study sought to address these issues by exploring the associations between adolescent involvement in nonviolent and violent delinquency (measured at two times in adolescence) and adulthood economic disadvantage and job quality. To do so, data drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health were analyzed. The results revealed consistently null associations between the measures of adolescent delinquency and economic disadvantage and job quality for males. For females, however, the results were consistently significant, indicating that females who self-reported greater involvement in delinquency were more likely to be economically disadvantaged as adults and to have lower quality jobs. These results indicate that the associations between delinquency and economic disadvantage and job benefits differs between males and females, with females, in comparison with males, paying a significantly greater toll for engaging in acts of violent and nonviolent delinquency.

Social Adversity Reduces Polygenic Score Expressivity for General Cognitive Ability, but Not Height.

It has been hypothesized that even 'perfect' polygenic scores (PGSs) composed of only causal variants may not be fully portable between different social groups owing to gene-by-environment interactions modifying the expression of relevant variants. The impacts of such interactions involving two forms of social adversity (low socioeconomic status [SES] and discrimination) are examined in relation to the expressivity of a PGS for educational attainment composed of putatively causal variants in a large, representatively sampled and genotyped cohort of US children. A relatively small-magnitude Scarr-Rowe effect is present (SES × PGSEDU predicting General Cognitive Ability [GCA]; sR = .02, 95% CI [.00, .04]), as is a distinct discrimination × PGSEDU interaction predicting GCA (sR = -.02, 95% CI [-.05, 00]). Both are independent of the confounding main effects of 10 ancestral principal components, PGSEDU, SES, discrimination and interactions among these factors. No sex differences were found. These interactions were examined in relation to phenotypic and genotypic data on height, a prospectively more socially neutral trait. They were absent in both cases. The discrimination × PGSEDU interaction is a co-moderator of the differences posited in modern versions of Spearman's hypothesis (along with shared environmentality), lending support to certain environmental explanations of those differences. Behavior-genetic analysis of self-reported discrimination indicates that it is nonsignificantly heritable (h2 = .027, 95% CI [-.05, .10]), meaning that it is not merely proxying some underlying source of heritable phenotypic variability. This suggests that experiences of discrimination might stem instead from the action of purely social forces.

Does Self-control Predict Crime, Delinquency, and Victimization in Immigrants? A Longitudinal Analysis.

Gottfredson and Hirschi's theory of low self-control has generated a considerable amount of research and the results of these studies have shown that low levels of self-control are consistently associated with involvement in antisocial outcomes. Despite the empirical support for this theory, there still remain areas of it that need to be more fully evaluated. Once such area is whether self-control is associated with antisocial outcomes in samples of immigrants. The current study sought to address this gap in the literature. To do so, data drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) were analyzed. The results of the statistical models revealed that low levels of self-control were associated with increases in self-reported delinquency, being arrested, being convicted of a crime, being sentenced to probation, being incarcerated, and being victimized. Taken together, the results of this study show that self-control is a robust predictor of antisocial outcomes among immigrants. We conclude by identifying limitations of the current study and directions for future research.

Association of Environmental Risk Factors and Personality Traits With Risky Driving Behaviors in a Sample of Young Adults From Saudi Arabia.

Road traffic accidents represent a serious problem in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), with rates of such accidents far exceeding the rates in developed nations. Even so, there remains relatively little knowledge regarding the driving behaviors among Saudi Arabians. The current study sought to address this gap in the literature by examining the environmental and trait-based contributors to risky driving behaviors among male and female drivers in the KSA. To do so, a sample of college students from a large university in the KSA was analyzed. The results revealed that delinquent peers, low levels of self-control, and higher levels of driving anger were associated with involvement in risky driving behaviors for both male and female drivers. Understanding the interconnections among peers, self-control, anger, and risky driving behaviors may provide some insight into how to reduce risky driving behaviors. Focusing on ways to reduce exposure to risk factors for risky driving behaviors may be one strategy for reducing these types of driving behaviors.

A genetically-controlled, cross-lagged study of the association between friends' deviance and participants' delinquency during adolescence: A replication.

The goal of the present study was to replicate Burt et al. (2009) and Hou et al. (2013) findings by determining the contribution of peers' deviance to changes in participants' (monozygotic [MZ] twins') self-reported delinquency from mid- to late adolescence while controlling for possible gene-environment correlations (rGE) through the use of the cotwin method in the context of a cross-lagged design. Two separate samples were used to this purpose. The first sample included 289 MZ-twin pairs (48.42% female; 65.5% of European descent, 21.7% of African descent, 12.8% other; average age at first assessment = 16.20 years) and relied on perceived measures of peer deviance, as in the two original studies. The second sample comprised 181 MZ-twin pairs (50.67% female; 84% of European descent, 3% of African descent, 2% of Asian descent, 2% Native North Americans, and 9% unspecified; average age at first assessment = 13.05 years) and used direct measures to assess peers' deviance. Participants in the first sample were part of a large representative sample of American adolescents, whereas the second sample included families with twins born in a large Canadian city. Results showed that within-pair differences in self-reported delinquency were stable from midadolescence to late adolescence in both samples. As in Burt et al. (2009) and Hou et al. (2013) within-pair differences in peer deviance did not predict changes in within-pair differences in self-reported delinquency in both samples (i.e., no socialization effect). In contrast to Burt et al. (2009) and Hou et al. (2013), however, we found no predictive link from twins' self-reported delinquency to peers' deviance (i.e., no selection effect). Finally, as in Burt et al. (2009) we found that peers' deviance was stable from middle to late adolescence and that peers' deviance and participants' delinquency were cross-sectionally correlated in the first sample, but not in the second sample. These results are interpreted in the context of the ongoing debate in regard to peers' socialization vs selection effects. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Examining the potential link between child maltreatment and callous-unemotional traits in children and adolescents: A multilevel analysis.

BACKGROUND: There is a great deal of research indicating that callous-unemotional traits in childhood are among the strongest predictors of adult psychopathy and psychopathic traits. As a result, there has been a recent surge of studies examining potential risk factors that may be related to the development of callous-unemotional traits. OBJECTIVE: The current study sought to extend prior research examining potential risk factors for the development of callous-unemotional traits by estimating the extent to which child maltreatment related to callous-unemotional traits in children and adolescents. PARTICIPANTS: To do so, the study uses a longitudinal sample of 4579 male and female youths drawn from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW I) across four waves of data. Data collection ran from November 1999 to December 2006. METHODS: A series of multilevel random-effects models were estimated in order to examine the association between child maltreatment and callous-unemotional traits. RESULTS: The results of the analyses revealed a significant association between child maltreatment and callous-unemotional traits across all the models. Additionally, our models demonstrated that the association between child maltreatment and callous-unemotional traits may be dependent upon the biological sex of the individual with child maltreatment having a stronger effect on males than females (ß = 0.15*). CONCLUSIONS: Overall, our analyses lend support to prior research examining child maltreatment as a risk factor for the development of callous-unemotional traits in youth. We conclude by discussing the implications of our study and considerations for future research.

Neighborhood Exposure to Violence and Delinquency in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: A Partial Test of Social Structure and Social Learning Theory.

The social structure and social learning (SSSL) model for crime and deviance has received an impressive amount of empirical support in the United States and other Western industrialized countries. Comparatively, less research, however, has examined whether the SSSL model offers a viable framework for explaining variation in delinquent behavior in other geographic contexts, particularly, countries that place a stronger emphasis on social control stemming from both formal and religious sources. The current study addresses this void in the literature by examining a sample of youth from Saudi Arabia, a Middle Eastern country that enforces Sharia (a set of laws based in Islamic tradition) and strict gender roles. The association between neighborhood exposure to violence and risk for violent and nonviolent delinquent behavior was examined using structural equation models. Subsequent models were aimed at more closely examining the mediating role of delinquent peer association between neighborhood exposure to violence and violent and nonviolent delinquent behavior. Results indicate that males exposed to neighborhood violence are more likely to engage in violent and nonviolent delinquent behavior, whereas females are more likely to engage in violent, but not nonviolent, delinquent behavior. In line with the SSSL model, delinquent peer association fully mediates the direct effect of neighborhood exposure to violence on delinquent behavior in both males and females. Findings from the current study suggest that the SSSL model may provide a useful framework for explaining individual differences in delinquent behavior in Saudi Arabia.

Examining the Potential Association Between Immigration and Criminal Involvement Using a Nationally Representative and Longitudinal Sample of Youth.

There has been a great deal of debate regarding the association between immigration and criminal involvement. Against this backdrop, this study sought to make an incremental increase to the literature by examining the nexus between immigration and crime. To do so, data were drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (N = 7,622-8,334). The results of the multivariate regression models revealed no evidence that immigrants, in comparison with U.S. citizens, self-reported more involvement in nonviolent delinquency or violent delinquency. Where statistically significant effects did emerge, U.S. citizens reported greater involvement in these acts. Moreover, the analyses also did not provide any evidence that immigrants were more likely than U.S. citizens to report being arrested, pleading guilty, being sentenced to probation, or being incarcerated. Once again, U.S. citizens were significantly more likely to have contact with the criminal justice system when compared with immigrants. These results suggest that the potential link between immigration and crime is likely complex and is not a straightforward association. We conclude by discussing some of the implications of the findings and directions for future research.

Psychopathic Personality Traits and the Risk for Personal Victimization.

Previous research links psychopathic traits with involvement in criminal behavior and numerous negative life outcomes. To date, however, a relatively limited amount of research has examined whether psychopathic traits confer an increased risk of victimization. This area of research is of interest as some scholars contend that psychopathic traits may confer several advantages for life outcomes including outcomes related to criminal conduct. As a result, psychopaths may be at a decreased risk of victimization. On the contrary, research examining the victim-offender overlap indicates that as psychopaths are likely to be involved in criminal behavior they would be more likely to be victimized. This article addresses this gap in the literature by examining whether psychopathic personality traits are associated with odds of victimization in a large nationally representative sample of Americans from adolescence to adulthood. Specifically, our study employs logistic regression and Poisson regression to test associations between psychopathic personality traits and victimization in data drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health). Our findings reveal that psychopathic personality traits are positively associated with odds of victimization in adolescence and adulthood. In addition, our findings indicate that psychopathic personality traits interact with criminal involvement to predict odds of victimization. The findings of our study have implications for the literatures concerning successful psychopathy and the victim-offender overlap.

Low Self-Control, Victimization, and Financial Hardship: Does Low Self-Control Moderate the Relationship Between Strain and Criminal Involvement?

General strain theory has been widely supported by empirical research. Research concerning possible individual-level moderators of the effects of strain, however, has yielded considerably mixed results. The current study addresses this gap in the literature by examining whether levels of self-control moderate the relationship between strain and criminal involvement in a large nationally representative sample. Our findings reveal that strain and levels of self-control have both additive and interactive effects on criminal involvement. To illustrate, respondents who were exposed to higher levels of strain reported more criminal involvement than respondents exposed to lower levels of strain. Similarly, lower levels of self-control were associated with higher levels of criminal involvement. In addition, levels of self-control were found to moderate the association between experiencing strain and two of the criminal involvement measures. Furthermore, the results suggest that the relationships among strain, self-control, and criminal involvement may vary across gender and forms of strain.

Maternal Depression and Child and Adolescent Problem Behaviors: a Propensity Score Matching Approach.

Prior studies have consistently revealed that maternal depression is significantly associated with children exhibiting higher levels of internalizing problem behaviors and externalizing problem behaviors. However, there is reason to believe that prior research may have suffered from model misspecification and confounding that biased the conclusions drawn from these studies. We use this possibility as the foundation for our analyses that examine the potential association between maternal depression and child internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors while addressing the methodological limitations of previous research. To do so, we analyzed data from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being and used propensity score matching. The analyses revealed significant differences between depressed and non-depressed mothers that, once accounted for, significantly impacted the revealed associations between maternal depression and child internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors. Although the significant relationship with child internalizing problem behaviors remained in all of the cross-sectional and longitudinal models post-matching, once the mothers were properly matched, the significant relationship between maternal depression and child externalizing problem behaviors disappeared at Wave 3. We conclude by discussing the implications and limitations of our study as well as considerations for future research.

The Association Between Genetic Predisposition and Parental Socialization: An Examination of Gene-Environment Correlations Using an Adoption-Based Design.

An extensive body of research has examined the role that genetic influences play in the development of antisocial behavior. Even so, there remains much that is unknown regarding the intersections among antisocial behavior, environments, and genetic influences. The current study is designed to shed some light on this issue by examining whether gene-environment correlations are present in the lives of adopted adolescents. More specifically, this article seeks to contribute to scholarship efforts aimed at understanding whether biological parents' antisocial behavioral phenotypes-behaviors often attributed to an increased likelihood of receiving a genetic propensity for antisocial behaviors-predict variation in environments that are experienced by their adopted-away offspring. To do so, the biological parents of adoptees were assessed and used to identify ways in which children elicit certain responses from their adoptive parents based, in part, on their genotype. Correlational analyses were calculated on a sample of adoptees (the final analytic sample ranged between n = 229 and n = 293) drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health). The results of the study revealed very little evidence of gene-environment correlations. The implications of these findings are considered.

A longitudinal examination of the association between intelligence and rearrest using a latent trait-state-occasion modeling approach in a sample of previously adjudicated youth.

Recidivism remains a serious issue in the modern criminal justice system, with over 80% of those previously incarcerated being rearrested within 9 years of release (Alper, Durose, & Markman, 2018). Although previous studies have identified risk factors that increase the probability of rearrest, much remains unknown regarding the full constellation of risk factors. One potential risk factor that has received limited attention is intelligence, as individuals with lower IQ scores have been found to be more likely to come into initial contact with the criminal justice system. Collectively, previous studies have provided preliminary evidence of intelligence as a risk factor for rearrest but have not fully explored this association. More specifically, it remains unclear whether the association between IQ and recidivism persists after controlling for time-invariant, individual-specific sources of variance in criminal behavior. The current study aimed to address this limitation and more closely examine the longitudinal association between IQ and rearrest with data from the Pathways to Desistance Study (N = 1,331 individuals). To distinguish variance in intelligence from time-stable, individual-specific variance in criminality, we estimated a latent trait-state-occasion model. A subsequent series of survival models, which included the previously estimated measure of criminality as a covariate, revealed a small and negative association between IQ and rearrest (hazard ratio = .95; 95% confidence interval [.92; .98]), suggesting that IQ may play only a minor role in recidivism. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Examining the Association Between Personal Victimization in Adolescence and Intimate Partner Victimization in Adulthood.

A large body of research has examined various issues related to repeat victimization, including potential risk factors and theoretical explanations. Despite the amount of studies dedicated to focusing on repeat victimization, there are some notable gaps in the literature. One particularly noteworthy omission in this research is whether there is a link between personal victimization in adolescence and intimate partner violence (IPV) victimization in adulthood. The current study sought to address this gap. To do so, data drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health were analyzed. The results revealed a statistically significant and relatively consistent association between personal victimization in adolescence and IPV victimization in adulthood. This association was detected for both males and females, and it was detected even after controlling for low self-control (males and females) and being the perpetrator of IPV (males). We conclude by noting some of the implications of these findings, as well as limitations to the study that need to be addressed in the future.

Physical attractiveness and criminal justice processing: results from a longitudinal sample of youth and young adults.

A substantial body of research examining the role that attractiveness plays in a wide range of outcomes has revealed that attractiveness is a beneficial characteristic across multiple domains of life, including some related to crime and the criminal justice system. The current study uses these findings as a springboard to examine the potential association between attractiveness and multiple measures of criminal justice processing, including being arrested, being convicted, being sentenced to probation and being incarcerated. Analysis of data drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health revealed that more attractive persons were less likely to be arrested and convicted than less attractive persons, but there was no association with odds of being sentenced to probation or incarcerated. Follow-up analyses revealed that the beneficial effect of being attractive was confined solely to females. We discuss possible reasons for these results and provide suggestions for future research.

Psychopathic Personality Traits and the Successful Criminal.

A significant body of literature links psychopathy and psychopathic personality traits with criminal behavior and involvement with the criminal justice system. However, very little research has examined whether psychopathic personality traits are related to being a successful criminal (e.g., evading detection). This study addresses this gap in the literature by examining whether psychopathic personality traits are associated with the likelihood of being processed by the criminal justice system (i.e., arrest). Our findings reveal that psychopathic personality traits are generally not associated with criminal success. Specifically, individuals with high levels of psychopathic personality traits commit more crimes and report more arrests, but they do not seem to have an advantage when it comes to avoiding arrest for the crimes they commit. We discuss the implications of these findings for the psychopathy literature.

Integrating Criminological and Mental Health Perspectives on Low Self-Control: A Multi-Domain Analysis.

PURPOSE: Criminological theories of crime, delinquency, and deviancy emphasize the causal role of low self-control whereas models of psychopathology posit a general trait liability, "disinhibition", contributing to persistent antisocial behavior and substance use. The aim of the current work was to link these compatible perspectives on deviancy through reference to a biobehavioral conceptualization of disinhibition. METHODS: We examined how the Grasmick et al. (1993) self-control scale, relates to (a) trait disinhibition as indexed by self-report scales, performance on inhibitory-control tasks, and brain reactivity to cognitive stimuli, and (b) a cross-domain index combining measures from these three domains. RESULTS: As expected, variation in self-control was robustly associated with antisocial deviance, substance use problems, and measures of disinhibition across measurement domains. Further, a factor analytic model provided compelling evidence that the Grasmick et al. scale operates as a robust indicator within a biobehavioral conceptualization of disinhibition. CONCLUSIONS: Findings confirm a strong link between self-control and trait disinhibition, and support the view that deficits in self-control have a prominent biobehavioral basis. Research in the areas of criminology and psychopathology can mutually benefit from a focus on influences contributing to variations in self-control, conceptualized as trait disinhibition.

Learning to blast a way into crime, or just good clean fun? Examining aggressive play with toy weapons and its relation with crime.

BACKGROUND: Researchers, such as Bandura, have proposed that children's mere exposure to the use of play weapons encourages deviant displays of aggression, but there is very little research to support this hypothesis of 20 years. AIM: To examine the relationship between amount of weapon play and concurrent aggression as well as later violent juvenile crime, while controlling for other variables possibly influencing criminal pathways. METHOD: Using longitudinal survey data collected from mothers and children (n = 2019) from age 5, with follow-up at age 15, correlations between children's play with toy weapons and juvenile criminality were examined. Multivariate regression analyses were employed to determine to what extent early childhood aggression, symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and symptoms of depression were antecedents of juvenile crime. RESULTS: For bivariate analysis between toy weapon play and juvenile criminality, the effect size was small and not significant. The relationship remained not significant once control variables were introduced into the model. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: The act of pretending to be aggressive in childhood thus plays little role in predicting later criminality after other factors, such as gender, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or depression, have been taken into account. Involvement in imaginative play with toy gun use in early childhood is unlikely to be useful as a risk marker for later criminal behaviour. Play fighting and war toy games may even be considered necessary components within the frame of normal development. Copyright © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.