Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Sep;7(3):331-358.
doi: 10.1007/s40865-021-00168-6. Epub 2021 Jun 12.

Intergenerational Associations in Crime for an At-Risk Sample of US Men: Factors that May Mitigate or Exacerbate Transmission

Deborah M Capaldi  1 , Margit Wiesner  2 , David C R Kerr  1 , Lee D Owen  1 , Stacey S Tiberio  1
Affiliations

Intergenerational Associations in Crime for an At-Risk Sample of US Men: Factors that May Mitigate or Exacerbate Transmission

Deborah M Capaldi et al. J Dev Life Course Criminol. 2021 Sep.

Abstract

Purpose: To examine moderation of intergenerational transmission of crime and antisocial behavior of parents to adult arrests of sons (from age 18 years to ages 37-38 years). Moderators examined were from late childhood (constructive parenting and sons' inhibitory control, internalizing symptoms, and cognitive function), adolescence (delinquency and deviant peer association), and early adulthood (educational achievement, employment history, substance use, deviant peer association, and partner antisocial behavior).

Methods: Study participants were parents and sons (N = 206) from the longitudinal Oregon Youth Study, recruited from schools in the higher crime areas of a medium-sized metropolitan region in the Pacific Northwest. Assessment included official arrest records, school data, interviews, and questionnaires.

Results: As hypothesized, parents' and sons' histories of two or more arrests were significantly associated. Predictions of sons' arrests from a broader construct of parental antisocial behavior were significantly moderated by sons' late childhood cognitive function and early adult employment history, substance use, and romantic partner's antisocial behavior. Overall, there was relatively little intergenerational association in crime at low levels of these moderators.

Conclusions: Findings indicate relatively large intergenerational associations in crime. The identified moderators may be used as selection criteria or targeted in prevention and treatment efforts aimed at reducing such associations.

Keywords: intergenerational crime; moderation; parenting; peer associations; substance use.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting Interests The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
Moderational model of intergenerational crime.
Fig. 2:
Fig. 2:
Logistic regression slopes for the association between parents’ antisocial behavior and sons’ adult official arrests as moderated and sons’ late childhood cognitive function.
Fig. 3:
Fig. 3:
Logistic regression slopes for the association between parents’ antisocial behavior and sons’ adult official arrests as moderated by sons’ adult employment adjustment (top panel), sons’ adult substance use (second panel), and sons’ adult deviant peer association (third panel); N = 206 for each of these three; sons’ partner’s antisocial behavior (bottom panel); N = 160.
Fig. 3:
Fig. 3:
Logistic regression slopes for the association between parents’ antisocial behavior and sons’ adult official arrests as moderated by sons’ adult employment adjustment (top panel), sons’ adult substance use (second panel), and sons’ adult deviant peer association (third panel); N = 206 for each of these three; sons’ partner’s antisocial behavior (bottom panel); N = 160.
Fig. 3:
Fig. 3:
Logistic regression slopes for the association between parents’ antisocial behavior and sons’ adult official arrests as moderated by sons’ adult employment adjustment (top panel), sons’ adult substance use (second panel), and sons’ adult deviant peer association (third panel); N = 206 for each of these three; sons’ partner’s antisocial behavior (bottom panel); N = 160.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Achenbach TM (1993a). Young Adult Behavior Checklist. Burlington, VT: University of Vermont, Department of Psychiatry.
    1. Achenbach TM (1993b). Young Adult Self-Report. Burlington, VT: University of Vermont, Department of Psychiatry.
    1. Achenbach TM, & Edelbrock CS (1978). The classification of child psychopathology: A review and analysis of empirical efforts. Psychological Bulletin, 85, 1275–1301. - PubMed
    1. Achenbach TM, & Edelbrock CS. (1983). Manual for the Child Behavior Checklist and the Revised Child Behavior Profile. Burlington, VT: University of Vermont, Department of Psychiatry.
    1. Aiken LS, & West SG (1991). Multiple regression: Testing and interpreting interactions. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

LinkOut - more resources