Exploring the Social Capital Accounts for a Variation in Desistance and Its Relative Impact on Desistance at the Louisiana State Penitentiary

Geraldine Doucet

doi:10.7176/iags/91-03

Abstract

This study explores the social capital accounts for a variation in desistance and its relative impact on desistance at the Louisiana State Penitentiary. The study adopted a survey research design, binary logistic regression, and a primary data source with a sample of 144 respondents to explore the study. The primary data source comes from the Louisiana State Penitentiary based on self-reported face-to-fact survey interviews initially taken May 2007 and followed by face-to-fact interviews officially obtained data over the period of a year and eight months regarding the same sample population. Results suggested that in the Before study, using self-reported data, there were only two social capital variables that were statistically reliable in distinguishing desistance among inmates. These variables were relationship with mother, which had the most predictive power regarding desistance process, followed by the who raised the inmate variable . The strongest of all variables in this study was the punishment adjustment, in particularly the psychological coping one. Keywords: Offenders, Age, Demographics, Desistance, Delinquents, Crime, Juvenile, Punishment, Incarceration, Offenders, and Justice system. DOI: 10.7176/IAGS/91-03 Publication date: August 31 st 2021

Highlights

Social capital accounts for variation in desistance among juveniles in the state of Louisiana is perceived to be the alarming causes of juveniles’ crimes
The practice of transferring juvenile offenders to adult criminal court and sentencing them to life in adult prisons grew during the latest juvenile crime wave of the late 1980s and early 1990s (Feld, 1987; Torbet, Gable, Hurst, Montgomery, Szymanski & Thomas, 1996)
Using the Hosmer and Lemeshow Goodness-of-Fit test [X2 (9, N = 144) = 21.157, p

Summary

Introduction

Social capital accounts for variation in desistance among juveniles in the state of Louisiana is perceived to be the alarming causes of juveniles’ crimes. Violent arrest rates for young adults (18-24-year-olds) were higher than rates for adolescents, 13- 17year-olds, who are referred to as juvenile lifers in this study (Commission on Behavior and Social Sciences & Education, 2001; Snyder & Sickmund, 1999). These events led states throughout the United States to significantly expand legislation allowing for the prosecution of juveniles in adult criminal courts (Griffin, Torbet & Szymanski, 1998) as well as sentencing juveniles to life terms in prison (Amnesty International, 2005). It has been reported that the transfer movement peaked at a time when the juvenile violent crime arrest rates had declined (Snyder, 1998; Singer & McDowall, 1988; Bishop, Frazier, Lanza-Kaduce & White, 1996; McNulty, 1996; Snyder, Sickmund, & Poe-Yamagata, 2000)

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