Effects of Social Ties on Crime Vary by Criminal Propensity: A Life-Course Model of Interdependence

• NCJ Number: 189323
• Journal: Criminology Volume: 39 Issue: 2 Dated: May 2001 Pages: 321-348
• Author(s): Bradley R. Entner Wright; Avshalom Caspi; Terrie E. Moffitt; Phil A. Silva
• Date Published: May 2001
• Length: 28 pages
• Grant Number(s): MH49414; MH45070; MH56344
• Sponsoring Agency: National Institute of Mental Health; National Consortium on Violence Research (NCOVR)
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This article develops the hypothesis that the effects of social ties on crime vary as a function of individuals’ propensity for crime.

Abstract

Previous studies have explained the transition from criminal propensity in youth to criminal behavior in adulthood with hypotheses of enduring criminal propensity, unique social causation, and cumulative social disadvantage. An additional hypothesis derived from the life-course concept of interdependence was presented: the effects of social ties on crime vary as a function of individuals’ propensity for crime. These four hypotheses were tested with data from the Dunedin study in which a multidisciplinary team gathered age-appropriate measures of low self-control, social ties, and crime in a longitudinal study that spanned from childhood to young adulthood. Attesting to enduring criminal propensity (hypothesis 1), the study members who displayed the lowest self-control went on to commit the most crime, even when controlling for the social ties that they formed. Attesting to unique social causation (hypothesis 2), the social ties formed by study members significantly deterred (or promoted in the case of delinquent peers) their criminal behavior, even when controlling for their levels of self-control. Attesting to the process of cumulative social disadvantage (hypothesis 3), study members with low self-control experienced significantly less education, employment, family ties, and partnerships and more delinquent peers. Each of these changes in social ties, in turn, increased criminal behavior. Finally, attesting to life-course interdependence (hypothesis 4), prosocial ties deterred crime, and antisocial ties promoted crime, most strongly among the low self-control study members. The evidence for life-course interdependence proved to be robust, holding up across different measures of self-control, social ties, and criminal behavior. 4 figures, 4 tables, 1 note, 46 references, and 2 appendices.