The Effects of Parental Divorce on the Intergenerational Transmission of Crime

Steve Van De Weijer,Arjan Blokland,Terence Thornberry,Catrien Bijleveld

doi:10.3390/soc5010089

Abstract

This study first examines the effects of parental divorce and paternal crime on offspring offending. Then, it tests whether parental divorce moderates the intergenerational transmission of crime. Diversity within the offending population is taken into account by examining whether effects are different for fathers who commit crimes at different points of the life-course and by distinguishing between violent and non-violent offending. A sample of 2374 individuals from three consecutive generations from 198 Dutch families was used. The results show that parental divorce increases offspring non-violent offending, but does not increase offspring violence after controlling for parental violence. Moreover, the intergenerational transmission of violence is moderated by parental divorce: empirical evidence for intergenerational transmission of violence is only found for children who did not experience parental divorce during their youth. This moderating effect of parental divorce is even stronger if the father committed violent crimes during the child’s youth. The moderating influence of parental divorce on the intergenerational transmission of non-violent crime is less clear, and the effects are overall stronger for violent crime than for non-violent crime. These results suggest that social learning mechanisms play an important role in the intergenerational transmission of violent crime, although genetic influences cannot be ruled out.

Highlights

The family of origin plays an important role in the development of one’s criminal behavior, and parent-related factors are important predictors of offending [1,2]
Model 1 and Model 2 show that both paternal violence and parental divorce have a significant positive effect on offspring violence, for both G3-G4 and G4-G5. These results indicate that participants with a violent father and participants whose parents divorced during their youth are more likely to be convicted of a violent crime. When both risk factors are included in the same model, the significant effect of parental divorce disappears
Conviction data on 2374 individuals from three consecutive generations are used to examine the effects of parental divorce and parental crime on offspring offending behavior

Summary

Introduction

The family of origin plays an important role in the development of one’s criminal behavior, and parent-related factors are important predictors of offending [1,2]. One major parent-related risk factor for criminal development is parental divorce, as several studies have shown that parental divorce leads to offspring antisocial behavior and criminal convictions [3,4]. Another important parent-related risk factor for criminal development that comes forward in the literature is parental criminality. One possible explanation for this intergenerational transmission of crime is that children are exposed to their parent’s crime and imitate and learn their criminal behavior from them. In case of parental divorce, children are likely to be less exposed to their father’s criminal behavior, since children usually stay with their mother after a divorce [8,9]

Methods

Results

Conclusion