The Consequences of Fatherhood Transition Among Disadvantaged Male Offenders: Does Timing Matter?

Abstract

Drawing on a relatively understudied population of disadvantaged male offenders, this study assesses potentially differential consequences of having a first child under different social contexts such as timing of an event. After determining the effects of fatherhood transition on offending and other proposed mediators at different stages of life (late adolescence vs. early adulthood) by adopting propensity score matching (PSM) and additional regression adjustment, mediating processes are assessed explicitly by employing multiple mediator models within a structural equation modeling (SEM) framework. This study finds that having a first child has no beneficial effects on teen fathers’ lives, whereas becoming a father during early adulthood has transformative potential. Crime-generating effects of teen fatherhood are significantly related to the changes in immediate and proximate correlates of crime such as lifestyles and delinquent peer association. These findings support the prediction from life course perspectives which posit that the impact of salient life events is not homogeneous but varies substantially by the timing of a transition. Further understanding of not just how timely arrival of turning points exerts influence on the reduction in subsequent offending but also why untimely transitions do not inhibit or even facilitate future offending would be fundamental to a more complete understanding of criminal desistance.