Journal article
Understanding the Role of Marriage in Black Women's Offending Over the Life Course
Journal of developmental and life-course criminology, Vol.4(2), pp.162-187
06/01/2018
DOI: 10.1007/s40865-018-0079-8
Abstract
Purpose Black women remain a traditionally understudied population in life course criminology and in studies of criminal desistance specifically. This work contributes to the desistance literature by focusing on within-group heterogeneity among black women, and examining whether variation in the structural position (measured at both distal and proximate points in the life course) conditions the relationship between a well-recognized correlate of desistance-marriage-and offending.
Methods The sample of 636 black females is drawn from the Woodlawn project, a longitudinal, interdisciplinary study of social adaptation, psychological well-being, and crime in a Chicago community cohort of black Americans who were in first grade in 1966. To test for potential moderating effects of structural position on the marriage-offending link, we employ hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) to simultaneously estimate variation in crime within-individuals while accounting for between-individual differences in offending.
Results Findings suggest that both childhood and adult measures of structural position condition the marriage-offending link in important ways. Most notably, black women who are more socioeconomically disadvantaged reap greater benefits from marriage- in the form of a reduced probability of offending-than their more advantaged counterparts.
Conclusion To the degree that women's pathways to offending are shaped by their socioeconomic marginalization, the practical benefits of marriage (e.g., economic improvement) might surpass other traditionally recognized mechanisms of desistance (e.g., social bonds) in their importance. Future life course research should highlight the complexity of lived experiences by explicitly considering one's race, gender, and social-structural position.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Understanding the Role of Marriage in Black Women's Offending Over the Life Course
- Creators
- Stephanie M. DiPietro - University of Missouri–St. LouisElaine Eggleston Doherty - University of Missouri–St. LouisBianca E. Bersani - University of Massachusetts Boston
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Journal of developmental and life-course criminology, Vol.4(2), pp.162-187
- DOI
- 10.1007/s40865-018-0079-8
- ISSN
- 2199-4641
- eISSN
- 2199-465X
- Publisher
- Springer Nature
- Number of pages
- 26
- Grant note
- Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation R01 DA033999 / NIDA; United States Department of Health & Human Services; National Institutes of Health (NIH) - USA; NIH National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 06/01/2018
- Academic Unit
- Sociology and Criminology
- Record Identifier
- 9984306237802771
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