Variability in Moral Disengagement and Criminal Offending in a Sample of Serious Youthful Offenders

• In Event: New Frontiers in Developmental/Life-Course Research

Abstract

Bandura's theory of moral disengagement (MD) refers generally to the freeing of oneself from their moral or ethical standards. In this regard, MD occupies some overlap in the criminological literature to concepts related to moral beliefs, techniques of neutralization, empathy, and potentially self-control. Yet, little is understood how MD patterns over the life course and its relationship to criminal offending. In this paper, we use data from the Pathways to Desistance Study, a longitudinal study of a sample of serious youthful offenders followed between middle adolescence and into early adulthood, in order to examine both heterogeneity in MD as well as how distinct trajectories of MD vary with respect to criminal offending.

Authors

• Stephanie Michelle Cardwell, University of Texas at Dallas

• Alex Piquero, University of Texas at Dallas

• Wes Jennings, University of South Florida

• Heith Copes, University of Alabama at Birmingham