Psychosocial Maturation and Desistance from Crime: A Test of Racial Invariance

• In Event: Desisting from Offending

Abstract

Research on desistance from crime has increased significantly in recent years, improving knowledge about how and why crime declines over the life-course. There are now several theories of desistance that have garnered some degree of empirical support. Psychosocial maturation, which comprises three factors, temperance, responsibility, and suppression of aggression, is one such theory. Studies have shown that psychosocial maturation is associated with desistance from crime across disparate samples. However, thus far, research has not examined group based differences in psychosocial maturation, including whether the construct is related to desistance in similar ways across race. In this study, we compare growth in psychosocial maturation as well as examining differences in the association between psychosocial maturation and desistance by race.

Authors

• Michael Rocque, Bates College

• Amber Beckley, Stockholm University