The Use of Direction-of-Causation & Mother-Daughter-Aunt-Niece Designs in Life-Course & Developmental Criminology: A Primer

• In Event: Causal methods in Developmental and Life-Course Criminology: Strategies to improve causal inference

Abstract

The use of behavior genetic designs has become more common in criminological research. Two related qualities make these designs appealing, particularly for life-course scholars. The first is the ability to partition heritable from environmental sources of trait variance. The second is the ability to hold shared familial factors (both heritable and environmental) constant while testing for potentially causal effects from environmental variables. Despite wider use of these techniques, there are two modeling approaches—direction-of-causation (DoC) and mother-daughter-aunt-niece (MDAN) designs—that remain less commonly utilized in life-course and developmental research. Using a large national sample of subjects in the United States, we provide an overview of both techniques, including key assumptions and concerns related to statistical power. We discuss the relevance of these approaches for criminological research and in particular for causal questions in the field of developmental and life-course criminology.

Authors

• Ana Carolina A. Stoffel, University of Mississippi

• Brian B. Boutwell, University of Mississippi, University of Mississippi Medical Center