Romantic Partners' Influence on Men's Likelihood of Arrest in Early Adulthood*

Abstract

Female romantic partners' influence on official crime occurrence for men across a 12-year period in early adulthood was examined within a comprehensive dynamic prediction model including both social learning and social control predictors. We hypothesized that relationship stability, rather than attachment to partner, would be associated with reduced likelihood of crime, whereas women's antisocial behavior would be a risk factor, along with deviant peer association. Models were tested on a sample of at-risk men [the Oregon Youth Study (OYS)] using zero-inflated Poisson (ZIP) modeling predicting to 1) arrest persistence (class and count) and 2) arrest onset class. Findings indicated that women's antisocial behavior was predictive of both onset and persistence of arrests for men, and deviant peer association was predictive of persistence. Relationship stability was protective against persistence.Keywords adult onset; crime in early adulthood; desistance; partner influence; persistence; deviant peer association; attachment to partner Deborah Capaldi is a senior scientist at the Oregon Social Learning Center in Eugene, Oregon. Originally from England, she received her Ph.D. degree in developmental psychology from the University of Oregon. Her research centers on the causes and consequences of antisocial behavior across the life span, including aggression in young couples' relationships, depressive symptoms, health risking sexual behaviors, substance use, and the transmission of risk across three generations. Her recent articles have addressed aspects of all these topics and have appeared in Development and Psychopathology, Journal of Family Psychology, Journal of Marriage and Family, and Journal of Abnormal Psychology. Hyoun Kim is a research scientist at the Oregon Social Learning Center in Eugene, Oregon. Her research interests include individual, social, and contextual influences on the development of psychopathology from adolescence through early adulthood, including depression and other Deborah M. Capaldi, Ph.D., 10 Shelton McMurphey Blvd., Eugene, OR 97401, deborahc@oslc.org, Phone 541-485-2711, FAX 541-485-7087. 1 An alternative model for count data with excess zeros could be provided by using the zero-inflated negative binomial (ZINB) distribution.To check whether an underlying ZINB distribution would provide a better fit to the modeled data than the analyses, assuming an underlying ZIP distribution, the final model containing predictors to class and count was examined within R (R Development Core Team, 2006) using a ZINB distributional assumption. The deviance statistic for the ZINB model was 538.8, compared with the ZIP model with 1 degree of freedom. The resulting difference (chi-square 3.2, 1 d.f.). was not significant at the .05 level, which indicates that the neither the ZIP nor the ZINB model provided a significantly better fit to the data. As an additional test of whether the two-class ZIP model provided an adequate fit to modeling the excess zeros in the Poisson distribution, a parametri...

Shifting Perspectives: Cognitive Changes Mediate the Impact of Romantic Relationships on Desistance from Crime

“…In addition to the characteristics of the romantic relationship, scholars have contended that the personal characteristics of the romantic partner also likely influence the probability of desistance (Capaldi et al, 2008; Giordano et al, 2007; Simons et al, 2002). The argument is that conventional partners are apt to promote socially acceptable activities, whereas antisocial partners are likely to advance situations and opportunities involving deviant behavior.…”

“…Simons, Stewart, Gordon, Conger, and Elder (2002) found that quality of romantic relationship was associated with a reduction in crime for both males and females. Similarly, Capaldi, Kim, and Own (2008) found that stability of relationship (an indirect measure of relationship quality) predicted a decreased likelihood of arrest in their sample of young adult males. Finally, Giordano, Lonardo, Manning, and Longmore (2010) examined the extent to which various dimensions of adolescent romantic relationships are associated with delinquency.…”

Longitudinal examination of peer and partner influences on gender-specific pathways from child abuse to adult crime

“…As a child grows older, socializing influences of the family give way to peers and adults outside the home. While there is individual variability in how this dynamic unfolds during adulthood, it is expected that spouses and intimate partners are particularly influential at this time (Capaldi, Kim, & Owen, 2008; Jaffee, Lombardi, & Coley, 2013; Rhule-Louie & McMahon, 2007; Sampson & Laub, 1990, 1993; Sampson, Laub, & Wimer, 2006; Simons et al, 2002). This basic proposition—that antisocial partners and the quality of romantic relationships influence crime to a greater extent in adulthood than do others—has been empirically supported in several studies: their own (Sampson & Laub, 1990, 1993; Sampson et al, 2006) and those of others (Capaldi et al, 2008; Jaffee et al, 2013; Rhule-Louie & McMahon, 2007; Simons et al, 2002).…”

Mothering as a Life Course Transition: Do Women Go Straight for Their Children?

“…Romantic relationships, for example, were theorized by Sampson and Laub (1990) to act as a turning point, and subsequent research indicated that the protective effects of marriage (Sampson & Laub, 2005) and, in particular, positive romantic relationships (Capaldi, Kim, & Owen, 2008) are quite strong for men. Specifically, Capaldi et al (2008) found that the desistance effects of romantic relationships for men depend on both relationship stability and the antisocial behavior of romantic partners.…”

“…Romantic relationships, for example, were theorized by Sampson and Laub (1990) to act as a turning point, and subsequent research indicated that the protective effects of marriage (Sampson & Laub, 2005) and, in particular, positive romantic relationships (Capaldi, Kim, & Owen, 2008) are quite strong for men. Specifically, Capaldi et al (2008) found that the desistance effects of romantic relationships for men depend on both relationship stability and the antisocial behavior of romantic partners. However, given the particular likelihood of domestic violence in women's romantic relationships (Brown, Miller, & Maguin, 1999), one might expect that this protective effect may not be nearly as strong for women as it is for men (Leverentz, 2006).…”