Partners in crime: Assortative mating, marriage, and divorce

• In Event: Romantic Relationships and Criminal Offending

Abstract

Romantic partners can have a large influence on an individual’s criminal behavior. This study examines the effects of marriage, which is often shown to lead to desistance from crime, and the effects of divorce, which could lead to an increase in criminal offending. Moreover, it is examined whether criminals are more likely to marry with other criminals (i.e. assortative mating). For these purposes data from the Dutch Transfive study is used. This study contains conviction data of a large number of individuals from multiple consecutive generations, and all their marital partners. Analyses revealed statistically significant associations between partners on criminal offending prior to marriage, but during marriage as well. Moreover, fixed effects models showed that marriage was related to an decrease in criminal offending, while divorce was related to an increase in criminal offending. Interestingly, changes in criminal offending appeared to start two years prior to the conclusion of the marriage or divorce. Implications of these results for life-course theories will be discussed.

Authors

• Joris Beijers, Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement (NSCR)

• Steve van de Weijer, Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement