Barr Ashley Brooke, Simons Ronald L
Department of Sociology, University at Buffalo, SUNY.
Department of Sociology, University of Georgia.
J Fam Psychol. 2015 Jun;29(3):360-70. doi: 10.1037/fam0000079. Epub 2015 Apr 27.
This study follows from a long line of research aimed at understanding the effects of romantic relationships on desistance from crime. We expanded this work by testing the differential effects of relationship status (i.e., single, dating, cohabiting, married) and relationship quality on crime and the different mechanisms explaining these effects. We drew upon longitudinal data on African American young adults, and utilized a fixed effects approach to examine intraindividual change in relationship status, relationship quality, and offending. Results suggested that, for men, relationship status was directly associated with crime, in that coresidential unions reduced offending independent of their quality. High-quality relationships, however, were found to deter crime for both men and women no matter their form. The effect of relationship status was largely accounted for by social control processes, whereas the relationship quality effect was explained by cognitive transformation, particularly a change in the "criminogenic knowledge structure." These findings demand greater attention to multiple dimensions of relationships and the unique mechanisms through which they may foster desistance.
本研究源于一系列旨在了解恋爱关系对停止犯罪影响的研究。我们通过测试恋爱关系状态（即单身、约会、同居、已婚）和恋爱关系质量对犯罪的不同影响以及解释这些影响的不同机制，扩展了这项工作。我们利用了非裔美国年轻人的纵向数据，并采用固定效应方法来检验恋爱关系状态、恋爱关系质量和犯罪行为的个体内部变化。结果表明，对于男性来说，恋爱关系状态与犯罪直接相关，即同居关系减少了犯罪行为，而与关系质量无关。然而，无论恋爱关系的形式如何，高质量的恋爱关系都能阻止男性和女性犯罪。恋爱关系状态的影响在很大程度上是由社会控制过程造成的，而恋爱关系质量的影响则是由认知转变来解释的，特别是“犯罪成因知识结构”的变化。这些发现要求我们更加关注恋爱关系的多个维度以及它们可能促进停止犯罪的独特机制。
