Moral disengagement as a mediator of the co-offending-delinquency relationship in serious juvenile offenders.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine whether moral disengagement (MD) mediated the relationship between co-offending and future delinquency once age, race, gang affiliation, unsupervised routine activities, and perceived peer delinquency were controlled. It was predicted that the temporal relationship between co-offending and future offending would be mediated by MD but not by cognitive impulsivity (CI), and that the MD-mediated effect would be significantly stronger than the CI-mediated effect. Participants were 1,162 serious delinquent male youth from the Pathways to Desistance study. A fixed-sample panel longitudinal design was implemented and a path analysis with two parallel mediators (MD and CI) and one dependent variable (delinquency) was performed. Consistent with predictions, a path analysis determined that MD but not CI mediated the relationship between co-offending and future self-reported delinquency. In addition, the indirect effect for MD was significantly stronger than the indirect effect for CI. It is surmised that co-offending may provide youth with the opportunity to observe, model, and learn criminal attitudes and behaviors from other offenders, which then augments MD and sets the stage for a rise in delinquency. Policies and programs designed to disrupt co-offending and reduce MD are discussed in terms of delinquency prevention and desistance. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).