This article discusses lessons learned about intergenerational offending patterns from the Rochester Intergenerational Study.
In recent years, criminology has experienced an increase in the number of three-generation, prospective studies of offending. The most fundamental question posed by these studies is whether, and to what extent, parental involvement in delinquency as adolescents increases the risk of offending by their offspring. There are several important substantive and methodological challenges that must be addressed in assessing the intergenerational effect, including the examination of moderating influences that can change the level of intergenerational continuity and methodological issues such as definitional elasticity—the impact on the level of intergenerational continuity that is likely to be observed based on (a) how offending is defined and (b) how the inherent heterogeneity in offending is taken into account. The current study examined these issues by using data from the Rochester Intergenerational Study (RIGS), an extension of the original Rochester Youth Development Study (RYDS). RYDS began data collection in 1988 with a sample of 1,000 adolescents and a sample of their parents. The intergenerational study began in 1999 by adding a third generation member (the oldest biological child of the initial adolescent participants), following them over time with 19 annual assessments. Overall, the study found a significant positive association between a parent’s involvement in adolescent delinquency and the likelihood that an offspring will also be involved in delinquency; however, this overall relationship masks substantial internal variability. The significance and size of the intergenerational effect varied due to such factors as the level of ongoing contact between fathers and their children and the child’s gender. It was also influenced by methodological considerations, such as definitional elasticity. Under some definitions of delinquent behavior, a robust relationship between the parent’s adolescent delinquency and the child's was observed, but under other definitions, there was no significant relationship. The study’s overall conclusion is that currently there is no clear and consistent answer to whether children follow in the footsteps of their parents regarding delinquency. The field of intergenerational study, which is still relatively new, should address more directly and systematically how both substantive and methodological issues can influence estimates of the intergenerational effect. (publisher abstract modified)