Emotional Cues and the Development of Delinquency: The Mediating Role of Social Bonds and Self-Control

• In Event: The Role of Psychosocial Factors in the Development of Criminal and Delinquent Behavior

Abstract

The emotional features of delinquent offenders, which capture a lack of moral emotion (empathy, shame, and remorse) or negative emotionality (proneness to anger, depression), have long been recognized as important because of its association with antisocial and delinquent involvement. However, despite long-standing evidence supporting such associations, results of empirical studies on these issues are less consistent. This study attempted to clarify these inconsistencies by investigating the mechanism underlying the emotional trait–delinquency relationship and by examining trait emotions in relation to individual differences in facial expressions of emotions. Using data from the National Survey of Children (NSC), we investigated more precisely two key variables—social bonds and self-control—as parallel mediators in the relationships between facial expressions of emotions and delinquency. Overall, the results of this study support the more general criminological notion of the stability of individual differences in offending over time and identify precisely what factors mediated stability and how they did it.

Author

• Young Ju Chae, Southeastern Louisiana University