Different Person, Different Time, or Different Path? Exploring Causes of Desistance and Drift in Adolescence.

• In Event: Examining Patterns of Aggression and Delinquency Using Group-based Trajectory Models

Abstract

Several theoretical perspectives posit unique mechanisms to explain desistance from offending in adolescence. For instance, desistance from delinquency may be triggered by an accumulation of conventional social bonds (Sampson and Laub, 1993), by cognitive or identity transformations that are incompatible with offending (Giordano, Cernkovich, & Rudolph, 2002), by changes in reinforcement and punishment schedules favoring conformity (Akers, 2009), or by decreases in opportunities to offend (Osgood, Wilson, O’Malley, Bachman, & Johnson, 1996). Using longitudinal data from the National Youth Survey, we examine several potential causes of desistance from and drift into adolescent delinquency. First, we document adolescents’ stated reasons for desistance, describing overlap between these stated reasons and common theoretical explanations for desistance. Second, we examine whether changes in measures of common theoretical mechanisms from the first to second wave in the NYS are associated with desistance among current and former users, and with stated reasons for desistance among former users. Third, we examine whether adolescents’ reasons for desistance differentially predict continued desistance or reoffending in later waves. We conclude by describing implications of our results for theoretical explanations of adolescent desistance.

Authors

• Jonathan Bolen, University of Nebraska

• Jonathan Brauer, University of Nebraska at Omaha