Moral Rules, Self-Control, and School Context: Additional Evidence on Situational Action Theory from 28 Countries

Kafafian, Matthew; Botchkovar, Ekaterina V.; Marshall, Ineke Haen

doi:10.1007/s10940-021-09503-y

Cited by 12 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…Crucial lessons learned (as outlined in Trivedi-Bateman and Martingano, 2023) have informed the participant recruitment and retention strategy for the SAT NAV [1] Compass study, currently being delivered in three schools. TCP can be applied to youth worldwide since the association between moral rules and crime propensity is evidenced in non-UK contexts including non-western countries (Kafafian et al , 2022).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The compass project intervention programme: the application of moral theory in different youth contexts

Trivedi-Bateman,

Gadd

2024

JCRPP

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Purpose The study aims to introduce The Compass Project (TCP), designed to determine whether strengthening morality and practicing emotion management can reduce youth antisocial attitudes and behaviours and increase prosocial attitudes and behaviours.The programme activities are informed by the existing evidence base and incorporate theoretical explanations of the mechanisms that link psychological moral and emotional traits and behaviour. Design/methodology/approach This paper will offer a description of the programme design and content, TCP 2022 pilot study and crucially, discuss the utility of delivering programmes like TCP in wider settings (schools, youth offending teams and other youth organisations). TCP is currently being delivered in UK schools as a multi-site, longitudinal, RCT design. Findings Participant feedback from TCP 2022 pilot study is used to illustrate the potential impact of TCP for young people in future. The authors identify five challenges faced by researchers conducting youth intervention studies: access, recruitment, continued attendance, nature of participation (enthusiasm, engagement and task-focus) and full participant completion of data measures. Practical implications This pioneering study offers a novel methodology to increase law-abiding moral attitudes and behaviours in young people. This paper adopts a forward-thinking and scientific approach to identify practical solutions to key challenges faced when delivering youth interventions and is relevant for youth practitioners and academics worldwide. Social implications TCP seeks to achieve improved youth attitudinal outcomes (such as law-aligned morality, empathy for others, measured decision-making and consideration of the consequences of action) and improved youth behavioural outcomes (such as improved quality of relationships with others, increased helping and prosocial behaviours, reduced antisocial behaviour and delinquency and reduced contact with criminal justice system-related organisations). Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, an evidence-based morality strengthening and emotion programme of this kind, closely aligned with a moral theory of rule-breaking, has not been developed before.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The compass project intervention programme: the application of moral theory in different youth contexts

Trivedi-Bateman,

Gadd

2024

JCRPP

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“…(Aloysius et al, 2019;Antonaccio, Botchkovar, & Hughes, 2017;Barton-Crosby & Hirtenlehner, 2021;Brauer & Tittle, 2017;Choi & Yun, 2021;Cochran, 2016;Craig, 2019;Doelman, Marshall, & Enzmann, 2021;Eifler, 2016;Ernst & Gerth, 2021;Gerstner & Oberwittler, 2018;Gerth, 2020;Hardie, 2021b;Hirtenlehner, 2019Hirtenlehner, , 2020Hirtenlehner, Bacher, Leitgöb, & Schartmueller, 2021;Hirtenlehner & Hardie, 2016;Hirtenlehner & Kunz, 2016;Hirtenlehner & Meško, 2019;Hirtenlehner & Treiber, 2017;Ishoy & Sims Blackwell, 2019;Ivert et al, 2018;Jordanoska, 2018;Kafafian, Botchkovar, & Marshall Haen, 2021;Kammigan et al, 2019;Kessler & Reinecke, 2021;Kleinewiese, 2021;Kokkalera, Haen Marshall, & Marshall, 2020;Kokkalera, Marshall, & Marshall, 2021;Lee, Hyojong, & Park, 2021;Li et al, 2021;Liu et al, 2020;McClanahan & van der Linden, 2021;Noppe, 2018;Pauwels, 2018b Pauwels, , 2018aPauwels, , 2019Pauwels & Hardyns, 2016;…”

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Situational sources of rule-breaking acts : an analytic criminology approach

Chrysoulakis¹

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Criminology has long been divided by mainly focusing on people’s propensities to commit crimes, on the one hand, and environmental characteristics conducive to crime, on the other. Such a division must be bridged to advance knowledge about why some people, but not others, commit rule-breaking acts in some environments but not in others. Furthermore, explanations require causal mechanisms explaining how the outcome, a rule-breaking act, is produced. Analytic Criminology offers a general framework for how to theoretically and empirically structure the study of crime. It does so by connecting macro- and micro-levels – structuring the convergence of certain people in certain places – through a mechanistic account. Within this framework, the situational action theory (SAT) proposes a causal mechanism explaining how said convergence triggers the perception-choice process: a rule-breaking act must first be perceived to be subsequently chosen. The main drivers during this process are the person’s crime propensity and the criminogeneity of the behaviour setting. Identifying the central components also enables the theorising of changes in crime involvement, which is the subject of the developmental ecological action (DEA) model of SAT. Drawing on data from the longitudinal project Malmö Individual and Neighbourhood Development Study, this thesis aimed to test SAT and its DEA model, thus bridging said division. It did so through four studies with specific reference to adolescents’ crime propensity, exposure to criminogenic settings, their convergence, and finally, change over time. Study I and study II investigated adolescents’ time use and connections to rule-breaking. The former examined how adolescents spend time in unsupervised and unstructured socialising with peers, during which hours of the day, in which neighbourhoods, and what level of collective efficacy the neighbourhoods have. Study II focused on adolescents’ routine activities and how they differentially place adolescents in unstructured socialising. Furthermore, it tested whether adolescents with higher crime propensity run a higher probability of reporting a rule-breaking act during unstructured socialising irrespective of their routine activities. Study III extended the situational analysis by investigating how adolescents form rule-breaking intentions in randomised scenarios depending on their morality, self-control, and the setting characteristics (varying in level of motivation and deterrence). Study IV applied a developmental perspective to key theoretical constructs derived from the DEA model, focusing on how morality, peer delinquency, and unstructured socialising change, and how the change in each is related to change in the others. Together, the studies found that adolescents with different levels of crime propensity are differently exposed to criminogenic settings but that such exposure simultaneously increases the probability of rule-breaking more for adolescents with higher crime propensity. In sum, the studies have bridged the person–place division in different ways by being rooted in a mechanistic account of rule-breaking, which is proposed as a way forward for criminology as a discipline.

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Can We Compare Attitudes Towards Crime Around the World? Assessing Measurement Invariance of the Morally Debatable Behavior Scale Across 44 Countries

Schumann,

Wolfowicz

2023

J Quant Criminol

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Objectives We aim to encourage scholars who conduct cross-national criminological studies to routinely assess measurement invariance (MI), that is, verify if multi-item instruments that capture latent constructs are conceptualized and understood similarily across different populations. To promote the adoption of MI tests, we present an analytical protocol, including an annotated R script and output file. We implement the protocol and, doing so, document the first test of configural, metric, and scalar invariance of the three-factor Morally Debatable Behavior Scale (MDBS). Methods We worked with data from wave seven of the World Values Survey (WVS). Applying multi-group confirmatory factor analyses, we, first, explored invariance of the MDBS in 44 countries (N = 59,482). Next, we conducted analyses separately for seven South-american, six South-east Asian, six East-asian, two North American and Australasian, and all four Anglophone countries. Results The MDBS displays an overall lack of invariance. However, we confirmed configural invariance of the MDBS for the South-east Asian sample, metric invariance in the sample of Anglophone countries, and scalar invariance for the Australasian and North American countries. Conclusions Wave seven of the WVS can be used for latent mean score comparisons of the MDBS between the Australasian and North American countries. Associative relationships can be compared in the larger Anglophone sub-sample. Taken together, MI must be tested, and cannot be assumed, even when analyzing data from countries for which previous research has established cultural similarities. Our protocol and practical recommendations guide researchers in this process.

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Moral Rules, Self-Control, and School Context: Additional Evidence on Situational Action Theory from 28 Countries

Cited by 12 publications

References 39 publications

The compass project intervention programme: the application of moral theory in different youth contexts

The compass project intervention programme: the application of moral theory in different youth contexts

Situational sources of rule-breaking acts : an analytic criminology approach

Can We Compare Attitudes Towards Crime Around the World? Assessing Measurement Invariance of the Morally Debatable Behavior Scale Across 44 Countries

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