Motivational Capital: Investigating Adherence to Pro-social Goals and Future Orientation as Protective Factors against Recidivism.

• In Event: 033 - Section on Crime, Law, and Deviance Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 10. Reentry and Recidivism

Abstract

This research uses the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health (Add Health), to explore and evaluate the association between motivational capital and juvenile recidivism. We define motivational capital is as the gathering of motivational resources for prosocial behavior and operationalize it per two distinct dimensions: positive future orientation and adherence to prosocial goals. In addition, we eschew standard operationalization of juvenile recidivism as re-incarceration, parole revocation, or self-report of offending, arguing re-arrest more effectively captures at-risk juvenile justice involved youth – thus increasing generalizability of this research. We estimated models using multivariate logistic regressions to investigate the relationship between motivational capital and juvenile recidivism. Results are consistent and indicate motivational capital’s two components are associated with decreased log-odds of recidivism.

Authors

• Kate Krushinski O'Neill, University of Washington

• Michael Hughes Esposito, University of Washington

• John Thomas Leverso, University of Washington