NCJ Number
179043
Journal
Journal of Crime & Justice Volume: 22 Issue: 1 Dated: 1999 Pages: 131-152
Editor(s)
J. Mitchell Miller
Date Published
1999
Length
22 pages
Annotation
This study examined whether there is a difference in social bond and criminal record histories between intimate, casual acquaintance, and stranger violent offenders; and then it explored whether social bond variables are predictors of juvenile and adult criminality.
Abstract
Subjects were 273 sentenced, incarcerated adult violent offenders for whom retrospective interview and record data were collected. Results of the first study show that offenders who victimized intimates were significantly more attached to their wives and had a greater number of recorded adult rape convictions. Offenders who victimized strangers had greater numbers of juvenile convictions and were more likely to have been confined in juvenile institutions. The second study suggests that social bonds to parents and school may be more directly associated with juvenile delinquency. As violent offenders aged and developed adult records, other variables such as attachment to wife, intelligence, alcohol abuse, drug abuse, and an extensive juvenile record were better predictors of adult offending and may be more indirect measures of the extent of social bonds. Future research could explore more direct measures of social bonds in adult offenders. 6 tables, 10 notes, and 64 references