Moral Neutralization Research Articles

Changes in moral neutralization leading to recidivism in low-to-moderate-risk justice-involved youth: replication and extension

In the present study, a growth mixture modeling (GMM) analysis performed on 7117 low-to-moderate-risk justice-involved youth disclosed the presence of four latent classes of neutralization scores measured over four non-overlapping six-month periods. These four patterns were subsequently labeled low accelerating, moderate accelerating, high accelerating and decelerating. The four classes displayed differing levels of recidivism, and so a series of binary logistic regression analyses were computed in which each individual class was compared to every other class. The results of these binary logistic regression analyses revealed that recidivism occurred significantly more often in the high accelerating group than in the low and moderate accelerating groups and significantly less often in the decelerating group than in the low, moderate and high accelerating groups, even after Time 1 moral neutralization scores were controlled. These results corroborate prior research denoting that declining moral neutralization scores portend decreased odds of future recidivism.

The interaction between a change in substance use/consequences and a change in moral agency as a mechanism for decreased criminal involvement in low-to-moderate and high-risk youth

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to determine whether a turning point (change in substance use and substance-related problems) and a cognitive variable (a change in moral agency) interacted to predict recidivism and future offending. Participants were 7,117 (5,640 males, 1,477 females) low-to-moderate-risk justice-involved youth from the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice study and 1,354 (1,170 males and 184 females) high-risk justice-involved youth from the Pathways to Desistance study. The main effects for a change in moral agency and a change in substance use, as well as a change in their interaction, predicted a change in offending. A potentially important inter-study difference surfaced in which the interaction occurred at the promotion end of the bipolar continuum in the low-to-moderate-risk sample (moral agency and absence of substance use/problems), and at the risk end of the bipolar continuum in the high-risk sample (moral neutralization and more social consequences for substance use). It would appear that another way turning points contribute to desistance besides addition/mediation and reciprocity is by interacting with relevant cognitive factors like moral agency.

Normative, expressive, and personal factors associated with cooperation with police: Findings from a longitudinal cohort study

PurposeWhile there has been extensive research on the normative, instrumental, and social explanations for cooperation with police, fewer studies have examined how personal, social-cognitive characteristics might influence willingness to cooperate. This paper integrates models of cooperation with the social information processing framework to understand when individuals are more willing to cooperate with the police. MethodsWe use two waves of data from the Zurich Project on Social Development from Childhood to Adulthood, an ongoing longitudinal study of an ethnically diverse sample of young people from Zurich, Switzerland. ResultsThe results show that, aside from perceptions of police legitimacy, moral neutralization and empathy were directly associated with willingness to cooperate. Police legitimacy moderated the relationship between moral neutralization and cooperation, however this effect was not robust across models. In addition, we found that those who have engaged in serious criminal behavior were less likely to cooperate. ConclusionsWe argue that our findings demonstrate the need for cooperation with police research to adopt a decision-making framework in explaining the decision to indirectly intervene and cooperate. Namely, individuals must first recognize and acknowledge the harm or illegal behavior done when deciding to take action to cooperate with the police.

Mediating the Peer Delinquency–Future Offending Relationship with Legal Cynicism and Moral Neutralization

ABSTRACT This study tested the “perception before belief” hypothesis which holds that perception generally precedes belief in promoting future delinquency. It was reasoned that legal cynicism, a facet of procedural justice perceptions should precede moral neutralization beliefs in predicting future delinquency but not vice versa. The two pathways were tested in a sample of 1,354 (1,170 male, 284 female) justice-involved youth with histories of serious delinquency in a path analysis of a two-mediator model using cross-lagged mediating variables. The research hypothesis received partial support in this study. Thus, while the “perception before belief” pathway (peer delinquency → legal cynicism → moral neutralization → delinquency) achieved significance and the “belief before perception” pathway (peer delinquency → moral neutralization → legal cynicism → delinquency) did not, the two pathways were not significantly different from one another. The current results support the proposition that perception precedes belief when it comes to predicting delinquency.

Complex answers to simple questions: mediating the parental knowledge-delinquency relationship with unsupervised routine activities and moral neutralization

ABSTRACT Drawing from social-cognitive-development theory, I compared a two-stage mediation model where unsupervised routine activities and moral neutralization beliefs mediated the relationship between perceived parental knowledge and delinquency to one-stage mediation models where unsupervised routine activities or moral neutralization served as the sole mediator. Analyses were performed on data from 1,495 (702 boys, 793 girls) early to mid-adolescent youth. Results showed that the indirect effect of the two-mediator pathway was significant while the indirect effects of the two single-mediator pathways were not; although when the two-year gap between the independent and mediating variables was reduced to one-year, the single-mediator pathway in which moral neutralization served as the mediator was also significant. This provides preliminary support for the notion that some degree of complexity may be helpful in explaining criminological relationships. Specific findings from this study imply that lack of perceived parental knowledge as to a child’s whereabouts and associations predicted a rise in the child’s involvement in unsupervised routine activities, which then stimulated moral neutralization beliefs, and from here led to a rise in offending from early to middle adolescence.

A Psychometric Analysis of the Moral Disengagement Scale (MDS) in Association to Bullying Roles in Colombian Youth

AbstractThe Moral Disengagement Scale (MDS) is a widely employed tool for assessing moral neutralization strategies in the context of bullying. However, studies conducted globally exhibit inconsistencies in both the factor structure and the number of items comprising the MDS. This study was conducted to assess the reliability and factor structure of the MDS within a sample of Colombian adolescents (N = 375; M age = 13.3; SD = 1.69) and to compare the use of MD mechanisms across victims, perpetrators, non-involved students, and bystanders of school bullying. To begin, a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) compared the fit indices of theoretical models proposed in the existing literature. The results revealed that all previously suggested models exhibited similar fit indices, indicating that these structures could be equally applicable for evaluating various dimensions of moral disengagement among adolescent populations. In order to identify the most suitable model for our culturally specific sample, an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) pointed towards a more concise 13-item version of the MDS as the optimal solution. Individuals meeting the scores for “bullies” employed more MD mechanisms compared to victims and non-involved students. There were no significant differences in MDS scores between pro-victim bystanders and those remaining passive or supporting aggressors. In light of these findings, targeting cognitive mechanisms that neutralize moral self-sanctions in perpetrators and potential bystanders of bullying may prove to be a valuable strategy in enhancing the effectiveness of anti-bullying interventions.

Moderation of the Antisocial Cognition-Offending Relationship by Neighborhood Disorder: A Multilevel Analysis of Adolescents from Eight Western European Countries

In an effort to gauge the effect of perceived neighborhood disorder on the antisocial cognition–delinquency relationship, this study subjected data from the Second International Self-Reported Delinquency study (ISRD2) to multilevel analysis. The sample for this study was composed of 20,700 participants (10,219 males and 10,474 females) from 502 public schools in eight Western European countries. The public school the child was attending served as the clustering variable and participants rated their neighborhoods on measures of physical and psychological disorder. Averaging these ratings across all participants attending a particular school, the mean ratings became the Level 2 variable (neighborhood disorder) in a multilevel analysis. A model composed of control variables, offending variety, moral neutralization, and cognitive impulsivity at Level 1 and neighborhood disorder at Level 2 produced a significant cross-level interaction in which the slope of the moral neutralization–delinquency regression line was significantly steeper when neighborhood disorder was high rather than when it was low. There was no effect for cognitive impulsivity, however, when it was assessed in conjunction with moral neutralization. Taken as a whole, these findings suggest that significantly more offending occurs when an individual-level variable, moral neutralization, and a group-level variable, neighborhood disorder, are both elevated.

In search of the origins of crime continuity: Aggressive versus nonaggressive delinquency as a key factor in the psychological inertia process.

The purpose of this study was to test whether the psychological inertia process believed to give rise to crime continuity is limited to aggressive delinquency or evolves from both aggressive and nonaggressive delinquency. Self-report data provided by 845 early adolescent youth (406 boys, 439 girls) were analyzed in an effort to test the hypothesis that aggressive rather than nonaggressive delinquency precipitates a rise in delinquency through the intervening influence of cognitive impulsivity but not moral neutralization. The hypothesis stated that of the four models evaluated in this study (aggressive delinquency → moral neutralization → offense variety; aggressive delinquency → cognitive impulsivity → offense variety; nonaggressive delinquency → moral neutralization → offense variety; nonaggressive delinquency → cognitive impulsivity → offense variety), only the aggressive delinquency → cognitive impulsivity → offense variety model would achieve significance. Consistent with this hypothesis, only the aggressive delinquency → cognitive impulsivity → offense variety pathway was, in fact, significant. The current findings suggest that the psychological inertia process may be driven by a pattern of aggressive delinquency followed by cognitive impulsivity and that neither nonaggressive delinquency nor moral neutralization contribute to the process. Theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed.

Cognitive-behavioral reciprocity: Testing the bidirectional relationship between antisocial cognition and delinquency.

Although reciprocity between variables is a topic of interest in the field of criminology, we cannot simply assume that all or even most criminological relationships are bidirectional without testing them empirically. The objective of the current investigation was to test whether delinquency and antisocial cognition are reciprocally or bidirectionally related. The hypotheses evaluated as part of the present study proposed that antisocial cognition would predict delinquency, delinquency would predict antisocial cognition, and bidirectional models would display significantly better fit than the unidirectional models on which they are based. Using data from the Pathways to Desistance study (1,354 serious justice-involved youths), I explored whether antisocial cognition predicts delinquency and a change in delinquency and whether delinquency predicts antisocial cognition and a change in antisocial cognition. I paired two forms of antisocial cognition-moral neutralization and cognitive impulsivity-with delinquency to predict a single future outcome with a zero-order correlation and a lagged outcome or change with a partial correlation. Findings showed that 40 out of 40 prospective zero-order correlations and 36 out of 40 prospective partial correlations achieved significance, with moderate and small effect sizes, respectively. Structural equation modeling revealed that the bidirectional models linking moral neutralization to delinquency and cognitive impulsivity to delinquency using lagged outcome measures both achieved significantly better fit than the unidimensional models on which they were based. The results of this study are congruent with the conclusion that the relationship between antisocial cognition and delinquency is reciprocal and that antisocial cognition is as much a predictor of delinquency as delinquency is a predictor of antisocial cognition. Thus, both patterns need to be taken into account for the purposes of theory integration in criminology, clinical practice in forensic psychology, and policy implementation in criminal justice. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Does the Worst of Both Worlds Effect Run Through Cognition? Testing Perceived Peer Delinquency/Drug Use and Moral Neutralization as Mediating Mechanisms

In an effort to understand the mechanisms responsible for the worst of both worlds (WBW) effect wherein drug-crime comorbidity leads to significantly more future adjustment problems than either crime or drug use alone, a multiple-mediator path analysis was performed. This study consisted of a multivariate analysis of four waves of data from the Gang Reduction and Education Training (GREAT) study provided by 2900 (1412 boys, 1488 girls) respondents. There was approximately one year between each adjacent wave. It was determined that the WBW effect was the result of linkages between two first-stage mediators (perceived peer delinquency and perceived peer drug use) and one second-stage mediator (moral neutralization). From these results it was surmised that drug-crime comorbidity led to increased perceived and actual peer deviance which then fueled a rise in moral neutralization beliefs through social learning and cognitive channels. The rise in neutralization beliefs, in turn, enhanced the child’s odds of becoming involved in future delinquency. Given that the perceived peer delinquency and peer drug use main effects and their interaction predicted a rise in moral neutralization, the effect of perceived peer deviance on antisocial cognition appears to be both cumulative and interactive.

Taking it to the Next Level: Multilevel Modeling and the Effect of School-Level Differences in Moral Neutralization on Individual-Level Delinquency Growth in Early Adolescence

Based on previous research and a theoretical model which states moral neutralization is learned through interaction with others, it was hypothesized that moral neutralization would promote an accelerated rate of delinquent growth during the middle school years, while a related concept, cognitive impulsivity, would not. Using multilevel modeling with 3,166 youth (1,538 boys, 1,628 girls) from the Gang Reduction Education and Training (GREAT) study, the effects of school level moral neutralization and cognitive impulsivity on delinquent growth were evaluated over a period of 18 to 21 months. Multilevel modeling produced results consistent with the conclusion that only moral neutralization moderated the temporal rise in delinquency once age, sex, race, treatment condition, and individual-level measures of moral neutralization and cognitive impulsivity were controlled.

Crime continuity from mid- to late adolescence: the mediating roles of perceived peer delinquency, moral neutralization, and victimization

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to determine whether perceived peer delinquency, moral neutralization, and criminal victimization mediated the connection between past and future criminality. Using data from the first five waves and all 1,725 participants (918 boys, 807 girls) in the National Youth Survey (NYS), this study tested a two-mediator pathway modeling on the peer influence effect (delinquency → peer delinquency → moral neutralization → delinquency), and a two-mediator pathway modeled on the person proximity effect (delinquency → peer delinquency → victimization → delinquency). The total indirect effect of both pathways and a shortened pathway that ran from delinquency to peer delinquency to delinquency were significant regardless of whether the full delinquency score or a dichotomized version of that score served as the outcome measure. Shortened pathways mediated solely by moral neutralization or victimization, however, failed to achieve significance. These results provide further support for a cognitive mediation interpretation of the past crime-future crime relationship. The cognitive mediation effect of perceived peer delinquency is discussed in relationship to previously identified processes known to give rise to crime continuity – namely, population heterogeneity, state dependence, and psychological inertia.

Is a gender-morality or gender-control gap responsible for male-female differences in delinquency? cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses

ABSTRACT This study tested for gender-morality and gender-control gaps that might explain sex differences in crime in a group of 2,718 early adolescent youth (1,309 boys and 1,409 girls; mean age = 12.12 years). Although moral neutralization and cognitive impulsivity were significantly higher in boys than in girls and moral neutralization rose significantly over time, the rise was roughly comparable across gender. Analyses confirmed the presence of a gender-morality gap whereby moral neutralization had an effect on delinquency in boys but not girls, and a gender-control gap where cognitive impulsivity played a role in delinquency for girls but not boys. In a cross-sectional analysis, the partial correlation between gender and moral neutralization, controlling for delinquency, was significantly higher than the partial correlation between gender and delinquency, controlling for moral neutralization, implying that gender differences in moral neutralization are stronger than gender differences in delinquency in early adolescence. In a longitudinal analysis, moral neutralization mediated the relationship between gender and delinquency in a design with proper temporal order between the independent (gender), mediating (moral neutralization), and dependent (delinquency) variables. These findings suggest that weak moral agency may be one of the factors driving the well-known relationship between male gender and antisocial behavior.

Mediating the Worst of Both Worlds Effect with Facets of Criminal Thought Process: Moral Neutralization, Cognitive Impulsivity, and Their Interaction

ABSTRACT The Worst of Both Worlds (WBW) hypothesis holds that prior offending and substance use in combination is significantly more likely to lead to antisocial behavior than either prior offending or prior substance use alone. In an effort to better understand the mechanisms behind the WBW effect, we performed a causal mediation analysis in which moral neutralization and cognitive impulsivity served as mediators of the WBW-delinquency relationship in a group of 845 (406 boys, 439 girls) early adolescents. We then tested the indirect effect for each pathway using longitudinal data and bias-corrected bootstrapped confidence intervals. Results showed that moral neutralization, but not cognitive impulsivity or the neutralization x impulsivity interaction, mediated the relationship between WBW and delinquency. These findings indicate that moral neutralization may play a salient role in the WBW effect by linking offending-substance comorbidity to future antisocial behavior. There is a need for additional research, however, to ascertain how and why comorbid criminal offending and substance use/abuse link specifically to moral neutralization, whereas there appears to be no connection between crime-substance comorbidity and cognitive impulsivity.

Perceived Parental Competence, Moral Neutralization, and Cognitive Impulsivity in Relation to Future Delinquency: Understanding the Socialization Process

The purpose of this study was to ascertain whether perception preceded belief when it came to predicting delinquency. Perceived parental competence served as the first stage of a socialization process designed to reduce delinquency. The second stage of this process entailed obstructing antisocial belief in the form of moral neutralization or cognitive impulsivity. We hypothesized that moral neutralization and cognitive impulsivity would mediate the relationship between perceived parental competence and delinquency in a model where perception preceded belief but that perceived parental competence would not mediate the relationship between neutralization/impulsivity and delinquency in a model where belief preceded perception. This hypothesis was tested in a group of 845 (406 boys, 439 girls) middle school (Grades 6-8) youth. Results from a three-wave prospective study revealed that moral neutralization and cognitive impulsivity both mediated the perceived parental competence-delinquency relationship, whereas parental competence did not mediate the neutralization/impulsivity-delinquency relationship. When the two components of perceived parental competence—parental support and parental monitoring/control—were analyzed separately, only the monitoring-to-neutralization-to-delinquency path achieved significance.

Does a change in moral neutralization from early to mid-adolescence predict a change in delinquency?

ABSTRACT A growth mixture modeling (GMM) analysis of neutralization scores in 1,830 youth across six waves of data revealed evidence of a three-class model in which moral neutralization either increased (low accelerating), decreased (high decelerating), or remained the same (moderate stable) over time. Controlling for age, sex, race, group assignment, and Wave 1 delinquency, an analysis of covariance revealed a significantly greater increase in Wave 6 delinquency in the moderate stable group than in the low accelerating group. When the average neutralization score was added as a control variable, the low accelerating group was highest, the moderate stable group next highest, and the high decelerating group lowest on Wave 6 delinquency. These results indicate that change in the pattern of neutralization scores (accelerating, stable, decelerating) may be as important as the level of moral neutralization at any particular point in time in determining the effect of neutralization on future delinquency.

Stop making excuses: reducing unethical behavior and improving performance and relationship quality

Stop making excuses: reducing unethical behavior and improving performance and relationship quality

The role of moral neutralization of aggression and justification of violence against women in predicting physical teen dating violence perpetration and monitoring among adolescents in Switzerland.

Although dating violence poses a serious threat to adolescents' health and well-being around the globe, little evidence is available for Europe in general and Switzerland in particular. Also, evidence on the role of cognitive predictors related to a more general justification of aggressive behavior and gender-based violence is lacking. Therefore, this two-wave longitudinal study conducted with Swiss adolescents (N = 646) examined moral neutralization of aggression and justification of violence against women as predictors of physical dating violence perpetration and monitoring. As expected, higher moral neutralization of aggression predicted a higher likelihood of perpetrating physical dating violence and monitoring among both female and male adolescents. Justification of violence against women was positively associated with physical dating violence perpetration among males, but negatively among females. Also, a negative relationship was found with monitoring among females. The role of gender and implications of these findings for research, practice, and policy are discussed.

The association of polyvictimization with violent ideations in late adolescence and early adulthood: A longitudinal study.

Violent ideations are increasingly recognized as an important psychological predictor for aggressive and violent behavior. However, little is known about the processes that contribute to violent ideations. This paper examines the extent to which polyvictimization triggers violent ideations in late adolescence and early adulthood, while also adjusting for dispositional and situational factors as well as prior violent ideations. Data came from three waves of the Zurich Project on the Social Development from Childhood into Adulthood (z-proso; n = 1465). Full-information maximum likelihood Tobit models were fitted to regress violent ideations experienced at ages 17 and 20 on multiple victimization experiences in the preceding 12 months while controlling for antecedent developmental risk factors and prior violent ideations. The results showed that violent ideations in late adolescence and early adulthood are influenced by violent thoughts, aggressive behavior, violent media consumption, moral neutralization of violence, and internalizing symptoms measured 2 years earlier. Experiences of polyvictimization significantly contributed to an increase in violent ideations both during late adolescence and in early adulthood. The exposure-response relationship between victimization and violent ideations did not significantly differ by sex. The findings are consistent with the notion that violent ideations are triggered by a retaliation-linked psychological mechanism that entails playing out other directed imaginary aggressive scenarios specifically in response to experiencing intentional harm-doing by others.

Moral neutralization: Nurses\u2019 evolution in unethical climate workplaces

IntroductionGood quality of care is dependent on nurses’ strong clinical skills and moral competencies, as well. While most nurses work with high moral standards, the moral performance of some nurses in some organizations shows a deterioration in their moral sensitivity and actions. The study reported in this paper aimed to explore the experiences of nurses regarding negative changes in their moral practice.Materials and methodsThis was a qualitative study utilizing an inductive thematic analysis approach, which was conducted from February 2017 to September 2019. Twenty-five nurses participated in semi-structured interviews.ResultsThe main theme that emerged from our analysis was one of moral neutralization in the context of an unethical moral climate. We found five sub-themes, including: (1) feeling discouraged; (2) normalization; (3) giving up; (4) becoming a justifier; and (5) moral indifference.ConclusionsUnethical moral climates in health organizations can result in deterioration of morality in nurses which can harm both patients and health systems. Some unethical behaviors in nurses can be explained by this process.