Marriage and Desistance From Crime: A Consideration of Gene-Environment Correlation

An impressive body of research has examined the effect of marriage on desistance from a criminal career. Although extensive efforts have been made to control for potential confounders, almost no research has considered the role that genetic influences play in the relationship. In this study, the aut...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of marriage and family 2012-02, Vol.74 (1), p.19-33
Main Authors: Barnes, J. C., Beaver, Kevin M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Add Health
Adolescents
Adults
Antisocial Behavior
Behavior
Behavioral genetics
Careers
Causal analysis
Correlations
Crime
Criminal sociology. Police. Delinquency. Deviance. Suicide
Criminality
Criminals
Criminology
Data analysis
Delinquency
desistance
Effects
Environment
gene-environment correlation
Genetic research
Genetics
Group Membership
Health
Human genetics
Individual Differences
Life cycles
Longitudinal Studies
Marital Status
Marriage
Medical genetics
Peer Groups
Prediction
Research Design
Sexuality. Marriage. Family relations
Siblings
Social Capital
Social Networks
Sociology
Sociology of law and criminology
Sociology of the family. Age groups
Spouses
Statistical analysis
Twins
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Summary:An impressive body of research has examined the effect of marriage on desistance from a criminal career. Although extensive efforts have been made to control for potential confounders, almost no research has considered the role that genetic influences play in the relationship. In this study, the authors revisited the marriage-desistance connection by analyzing sibling data drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health; Ns ranged between 2,224 and 3,745 siblings) and by using a statistical design that controls for confounding genetic influences. The findings revealed that both marriage and desistance were under genetic influence (h² = .56 and .49, respectively). In addition, before controlling for shared genetic influences, marriage was predictive of desistance. After genetic influences were controlled, the marriage effect remained statistically significant but was reduced by 60%. The implications of these findings for life course criminology are considered.
ISSN:0022-2445
1741-3737
DOI:10.1111/j.1741-3737.2011.00884.x