Desisting from Crime in Emerging Adulthood

Abstract

Objectives: Test whether Moffitt’s theory of adolescence-limited offenders, which contends that as young people enter adult roles they exit the “maturity gap” of adolescence and desist from crime, still applies given the changed nature of the early adult years. Examine whether spending time in adult roles remains a driver of desistance, and whether today’s emerging adults are at risk of experiencing a maturity gap between how adult they feel and the reality of their social situation. Methods: Using longitudinal data from a Dutch general population sample aged 18 to 24 years, fixed-effects models were run examining the effect of within-person changes in time spent in adult roles on self-reported delinquency and moderation of this effect by feelings of adultness. Results: The more time spent in adult roles, the less delinquency respondents consequently reported. This effect was moderated: When spending more time in adult roles and feeling more adult, higher delinquency was reported than when spending more time in adult roles and feeling less adult. Conclusions: Today’s emerging adults desist from delinquency in response to taking on adult roles. Possible interpretations for the unexpected qualification of this conclusion are discussed, as well as limitations such as the simplicity of our feeling adult measure.

Delinquency in Emerging Adulthood: Insights into Trajectories of Young Adults in a German Sample and Implications for Measuring Continuity of Offending

“…However, some markers, such as stable employment, have become ever more challenging to achieve in today's employment market (Côté and Bynner 2008), let alone finding a steady partner. Hill et al (2015) even argue that being exposed to the maturity gap (i.e., feeling to be an adult without the accompanying social roles, responsibilities, and markers; Moffitt 2006) seems to affect the risk to offend during this period.…”

Social mindfulness: Prosocial the active way

“…Study 1 uses data from the 'Transitions in Amsterdam' (TransAM) project, a multi-wave study that covers a sample of Dutch emerging adults (i.e. adolescents and young adults), conducted by the Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement (see Blokland, 2014;Hill, Blokland, & van der Geest, 2016;Hill, Lalji, van Rossum, van der Geest, & Blokland, 2015). To test whether social mindfulness relates to general prosociality, we examine how social mindfulness relates to a Big Five assessment of personality (specifically agreeableness) as well as to measures of moral disengagement, empathy, general prosocial behavior (i.e.…”

“…Study 1 was based on the questionnaire scores of 687 individuals (402 women) between 19 and 24 years old, M age = 21.14 (SD = 1.36) in the multi-wave TransAM project (see Blokland, 2014;Hill et al, 2016Hill et al, , 2015. The main focus of the TransAM project was delinquent behavior during emerging adulthood in Amsterdam, and included a multitude of psychological measures, as well as details on the changing life circumstances of participants and their delinquent behavior.…”

The social historical roots of the concept of emerging adulthood and its impact on early adults

“…Three decades ago, youth advocates argued for a similar view of adolescents in order to offer them other more humane alternatives to harsh punishment (Donnelly, 2017; Muncie, 2005). Offering a biological basis for behavior has been a principal argument to demand rehabilitation- versus punishment-oriented incarceration of offenders in their early 20s (Caulum, 2007; Hill, Blokland, & van der Geest, 2016). Similarly, Aamodt and Wang (2008) argue for delaying the push out that happens for young people as soon as they turn 18 because, as the authors reason, the young person’s brain is still immature and the cost society pays for that immaturity is high.…”