Cavanagh Caitlin, Cauffman Elizabeth
Michigan State University, 655 Auditorium Road, East Lansing, MI, USA.
University of California, Irvine, CA, 92617, USA.
J Youth Adolesc. 2017 Jul;46(7):1533-1546. doi: 10.1007/s10964-017-0679-3. Epub 2017 Apr 26.
To understand how youth desist from crime after their first arrest, it is necessary to investigate their primary support system: their parents. As such, this study examined the reciprocal effects of justice system contact on the mother-child dyad. Interviews with 317 mothers and their sons from Orange County, CA, Jefferson Parish, LA, and Philadelphia, PA were conducted semiannually over two and a half years. At the beginning of the study, the sons were first-time offenders aged 13-17 and mostly non-White (i.e., 19.2 White, 56.5 Latino, 21.5 Black, and 2.8% another race/ethnicity). The results revealed that a high quality initial mother-son relationship reduces youths' re-offending over time. Furthermore, as mothers perceived that their sons were offending more, they reported less warmth in their relationships with their sons two and a half years later. Interestingly, youth's age emerged as a moderator. First, older youth were less likely to engage in reoffending if they had a warm maternal relationship. Second, decreases in relationship warmth associated with re-offending were steeper for younger youth. The findings have implications for juvenile justice policy in terms of improving probationary outcomes for youth offenders, and alleviating the financial and emotional burden on justice system-involved families.
为了解青少年在首次被捕后如何停止犯罪，有必要调查他们的主要支持系统：他们的父母。因此，本研究考察了司法系统接触对母子二元关系的相互影响。在两年半的时间里，每半年对来自加利福尼亚州奥兰治县、路易斯安那州杰斐逊教区和宾夕法尼亚州费城的317名母亲及其儿子进行一次访谈。在研究开始时，这些儿子是年龄在13至17岁之间的初犯，且大多是非白人（即19.2%为白人，56.5%为拉丁裔，21.5%为黑人，2.8%为其他种族/族裔）。结果显示，高质量的初始母子关系会随着时间推移减少青少年再次犯罪的几率。此外，随着母亲们察觉到儿子犯罪增多，她们表示在两年半后与儿子的关系中感受到的温暖减少。有趣的是，青少年的年龄起到了调节作用。首先，如果与母亲关系温暖，年龄较大的青少年再次犯罪的可能性较小。其次，与再次犯罪相关的关系温暖度下降，对年龄较小的青少年更为明显。这些研究结果对青少年司法政策具有启示意义，有助于改善青少年罪犯的缓刑结果，并减轻涉及司法系统的家庭的经济和情感负担。
