The Impact of Residential Stability on Reoffending over the Life-Course

• In Event: Emerging Scholars on Emerging Adulthood: Explicating the Relationship between Social Environment and Offending

Abstract

Although residential instability is generally seen as a risk factor for reoffending, other studies have associated residential mobility with desistance. These conflicting findings suggest the need for more detailed theorizing and research about the role of residential mobility in offending. From a life-course perspective, the timing of residential mobility may have important implications for its role as a risk or protective factor. For instance, residential mobility during adolescence may represent familial and financial instability, whereas residential mobility during young adulthood may accompany positive turning points (e.g., university attendance). Furthermore, residential mobility has typically been measured dichotomously (e.g., moved in the past year) or continuously (e.g., number of moves in the past year), which disregards the timing of residential moves and the possibility that the frequency of moves may vary over time. Thus, when residential mobility occurs and how residential mobility is measured may have important implications for understanding its effect on reoffending. Using data from the longitudinal Incarcerated Serious and Violent Young Offender Study, we analyzed participants’ (n = 1719) patterns of residential address instability from adolescence to adulthood and explore how this instability may have impacted reoffending.

Authors

• Jen-Li Shen, Simon Fraser University

• Evan McCuish, Simon Fraser University