This study takes a life-course approach to examine whether family and religious characteristics influence individual-level delinquency trajectories from early adolescence through young adulthood. Based on data from the NLSY79, results suggest that residing with two parents deters youths from becoming delinquent and that supportive parenting practices reduce their likelihood of becoming involved in delinquent behavior early in adolescence. There is also evidence that family and religion interact to predict delinquency trajectories. Religion enhances the effect of parental affection in deterring delinquent behavior and mitigates the increased risk of high levels of delinquent behavior among youths in single-parent families. Moreover, the findings indicate that delinquency trajectories are not immutable; family transitions are associated with increases in delinquency, but religious participation throughout adolescence and marriage are associated with declines in delinquent behavior. Overall, results suggest that family and religious characteristics continually influence the extent to which youths commit delinquent acts.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
BaderChristopher D.DesmondScott A..2003. “Family as Moral Community: Does the Effect of Youth Religiosity on Delinquency Depend on the Religiosity of Parents?”Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Criminology,
Denver, CO, November 19 to 22.
2.
BaierColin J.WrightBradley R. E..2001. “‘If You Love Me, Keep My Commandments’: A Meta-Analysis of the Effect of Religion on Crime.”Journal of Research on Crime and Delinquency38: 3–21.
3.
BendaBrent B.CorwynRobert Flynn.1997. “A Test of a Model with Reciprocal Effects between Religiosity and Various Forms of Delinquency Using 2-Stage Least Squares Regression.”Journal of Social Service Research22: 27–52.
4.
BloklandArjan A. J.NieuwbeertaPaul.2005. “The Effects of Life Circumstances on Longitudinal Trajectories of Offending.”Criminology43: 1203–40.
5.
Center for Human Resource Research.2006. NLSY79 Child and Young Adult Data Users Guide.Columbus, OH: The Ohio State University
6.
ChungIck-JoongHillKarl G.David HawkinsJ.GilchristLewayne D.NaginDaniel S..2002. “Childhood Predictors of Offense Trajectories.”Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency39: 60–90.
7.
DemuthStephenBrownSusan L..2004. “Family Structure, Family Processes, and Adolescent Delinquency: The Significance of Parental Absence versus Parental Gender.”Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency41: 58–81.
8.
DuncanGreg J.WilkersonBessieEnglandPaula.2006. “Cleaning Up Their Act: The Effects of Marriage and Cohabitation on Licit and Illicit Drug Use.”Demography43: 691–710.
9.
DurkheimEmile. [1897]1951. Suicide. New York: Free Press.
10.
ElderGlen H.1998. “The Life Course as Developmental Theory.”Child Development69: 1–12.
11.
FarringtonDavid P., ed.2005. Integrated Developmental & Life Course Theories on Offending: Advances in Criminological Theory.Vol. 14. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers.
12.
GottfredsonMichael R.HirschiTravis.1990. A General Theory of Crime. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
13.
HirschiTravis.1969. Causes of Delinquency. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
14.
HirschiTravisGottfredsonMichael.1983. “Age and the Explanation of Crime.”American Journal of Sociology89: 552–84.
15.
JohnsonByron R.2004. “Religious Programs and Recidivism among Former Inmates in Prison Fellowship Programs: A Long-Term Follow-Up Study.”Justice Quarterly21: 229–354.
16.
JohnsonByron R.JangSung JoonLarsonDavid B.De LiSpencer.2001. “Does Adolescent Religious Commitment Matter? A Reexamination of the Effects of Religiosity on Delinquency.”Journal of Research on Crime and Delinquency38: 22–43.
17.
JonesBobby L.NaginDaniel S.RoederKathryn.2001. “A SAS Procedure Based on Mixture Models for Estimating Developmental Trajectories.”Sociological Methods and Research29: 374–93.
18.
KingRyan D.MassogliaMichaelMacmillanRoss.2007. “The Context of Marriage and Crime: Gender, the Propensity to Marry, and Offending in Early Adulthood.”Criminology45: 33–65.
19.
KirbyJames B.2006. “From Single-Parent Families to Stepfamilies: Is the Transition Associated with Adolescent Alcohol Initiation?”Journal of Family Issues27: 685–711.
20.
LaubJohn H.NaginDaniel S.SampsonRobert L..1998. “Trajectories of Change in Criminal Offending: Good Marriages and the Desistance Process.”American Sociological Review63: 225–38.
21.
LaubJohn H.SampsonRobert L..2003. Shared Beginnings, Divergent Lives: Delinquent Boys to Age 70. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
22.
LovelandMatthew T.2003. “Religious Switching: Preference Development, Maintenance, and Change.”Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion42: 147–57.
23.
MahoneyAnnettePargamentKenneth I.Murray-SwankAaronMurray-SwankNichole.2003. “Religion and the Sanctification of Family Relationships.”Review of Religious Research44: 220–36.
24.
MartinJoyce A.HamiltonBrady E.SuttonPaul D.VenturaStephanie J.MenackerFayMunsonMartha L..2005. “Final Data for 2003.”National Vital Statistics Reports54:2. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics.
25.
McLanahanSaraSandefurGary.1994. Growing up with a Single Parent: What Hurts, What Helps. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
26.
McNultyThomas L.BellairPaul E..2003. “Explaining Racial and Ethnic Differences in Serious Adolescent Violent Behavior.”Criminology41: 709–47.
27.
MoffittTerrie E.1993. “Adolescence-Limited and Life-Course-Persistent Antisocial Behavior: A Developmental Taxonomy.”Psychological Review100: 674–701.
28.
MyersScott M.1996. “An Interactive Model of Religiosity Inheritance: The Importance of Family Context.”American Sociological Review61: 858–66.
NaginDaniel S.2005. Group-Based Modeling of Development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
31.
NaginDaniel S.LandKenneth C..1993. “Age, Criminal Careers, and Population Heterogeneity: Specification and Estimation of a Nonparametric, Mixed Poisson Model.”Criminology31: 327–61.
32.
OsgoodD. Wayne.2005. “Making Sense of Crime and the Life Course.”Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science602: 196–211.
33.
PearceLisa D.HaynieDana L..2004. “Intergenerational Religious Dynamics and Adolescent Delinquency.”Social Forces82: 1553–72.
34.
PettsRichard J.2007. “Religious Participation, Religious Affiliation, and Engagement with Children among Fathers Experiencing the Birth of a New Child.”Journal of Family Issues28: 1139–61.
35.
PiqueroAlex R.2008. Taking Stock of Developmental Trajectories of Criminal Activity over the Life Course Pp. 23–78 in The Long View of Crime: A Synthesis of Longitudinal Research, edited by LibermanA. M.. New York: Springer.
36.
PogarskyGregThornberryTerence P.LizotteAlan J..2006. “Developmental Outcomes for Children of Young Mothers.”Journal of Marriage and Family68: 332–44.
37.
RaudenbushStephen W.2001. Toward a Coherent Framework for Comparing Trajectories of Individual Change Pp. 35–64 in New Methods for the Analysis of Change, edited by CollinsL. M.SayerA. G.. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
38.
RebellonCesar J.2002. “Reconsidering the Broken Homes/Delinquency Relationship and Exploring its Mediating Mechanisms.”Criminology40: 103–136.
39.
RegnerusMark D.2003. “Religion and Positive Adolescent Outcomes: A Review of Research and Theory.”Review of Religious Research44: 394–413.
40.
RegnerusMark D.SmithChristian.2005. “Selection Effects in Studies of Religious Influence.”Review of Religious Research47: 23–50.
41.
RegnerusMark D.UeckerJeremy E..2006. “Finding Faith, Losing Faith: The Prevalence and Context of Religious Transformations during Adolescence.”Review of Religious Research47: 217–37.
42.
SampsonRobert J.LaubJohn H..1993. Crime in the Making: Pathways and Turning Points through Life. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
43.
SampsonRobert J.LaubJohn H..2005. “A Life-Course View of the Development of Crime.”The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science602: 12–45.
44.
SampsonRobert J.LaubJohn H.WimerChristopher.2006. “Does Marriage Reduce Crime? A Counterfactual Approach to Within-Individual Causal Effects.”Criminology44: 465–508.
45.
SimonsRonald L.SimonsLeslie GordonBurtCallie HarbinBrodyGene H.CutronaCarolyn.2005. “Collective Efficacy, Authoritative Parenting and Delinquency: A Longitudinal Test of a Model Integrating Community- and Family-Level Processes.”Criminology43: 989–1029.
46.
SimonsRonald L.SimonsLeslie GordonChenYi-FuBrodyGene H.LinKuei-Hsiu.2007. “Identifying the Psychological Factors that Mediate the Association between Parenting Practices and Delinquency.”Criminology45: 481–517.
47.
SimonsRonald L.WuChyi-InCongerRand D.LorenzFrederick O..1994. “Two Routes to Delinquency: Differences between Early and Late Starters in the Impact of Parenting and Deviant Peers.”Criminology32: 247–76.
48.
SmithChristian.2003. “Theorizing Religious Effects among American Adolescents.”Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion42: 17–30.
49.
StarkRodney.1996. “Religion as Context: Hellfire and Delinquency One More Time.”Sociology of Religion57: 163–73.
50.
SteinbergLaurence.2001. “We Know Some Things: Parent-Adolescent Relationships in Retrospect and Prospect.”Journal of Research on Adolescence11: 1–19.
51.
ThomsonElizabethHansonThomas L.McLanahanSara S..1994. “Family Structure and Child Well-Being: Economic Resources vs. Parental Behaviors.”Social Forces73: 221–42.
52.
ThorntonArland.1985. “Reciprocal Influences of Family and Religion in a Changing World.”Journal of Marriage and the Family47: 381–94.
53.
UnneverJames D.CullenFrancis T.AgnewRobert.2006. “Why is ‘Bad’ Parenting Criminogenic? Implications from Rival Theories.”Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice4: 1–31.
54.
WarrMark.1993. “Parents, Peers, and Delinquency.”Social Forces72: 247–64.
