NCJ Number
206632
Journal
Youth & Society Volume: 36 Issue: 1 Dated: September 2004 Pages: 3-29
Editor(s)
Kathryn G. Herr
Date Published
September 2004
Length
27 pages
Annotation
This longitudinal analysis explores the possibility that youth who get involved with the criminal justice system continue their illegal behavior as a result of their involvement in the criminal justice system with the general outcome predicted in labeling theory.
Abstract
The criminal justice system was developed to discourage crime, to give individuals more to lose by engaging in crime. The result intended was that all teenagers would eventually age-out of crime. However, a small number of youth offenders behave in a manner opposite to that intended by the criminal justice system by persisting in offending. This longitudinal analysis examines the part that criminal justice system involvement plays in persistent offending. Labeling theory would predict that his contact increases future illegal behavior, whereas deterrence theory would predict the opposite. Seven waves of data collected on 153 boys as part of the Iowa Youth and Families Project were used to test the structural equation model hypothesizing longitudinal relationships of criminal behavior, deviant peer association, and criminal justice system involvement from early adolescence to early adulthood. The results indicated that system involvement had mediating effects. In addition to being directly related, prior and later crime were indirectly related through system involvement twice and prior delinquency and later deviant peer association was also indirectly related through system involvement. The results suggest that system involvement helps to explain chronic criminal behavior. However, the results also show that the part it plays is very limited. Future research is necessary to expose the relative predictive power of more specific legal sanctions. This study only begins to explore the merit of a life-course labeling theory by using longitudinal data to examine the relationship between criminal justice system involvement and crime across different stages of youth. Appendix and references