John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York, NY, USA.
Université Laval, Quebec City, Quebec, Canada.
J Interpers Violence. 2020 Sep;35(17-18):3643-3665. doi: 10.1177/0886260517712273. Epub 2017 Jun 9.
Despite the growing body of research on desistance from crime, there have been comparatively few studies that have focused specifically on desistance from sex offending. Much remains unknown about whether the findings from the general desistance literature are applicable to individuals convicted of a sexual offense. The current study explores this issue. Given the well-established importance of the social support network in the process of desistance from crime, this research focuses on the influence of indicators of family support on reoffending outcomes. We also examine the sustained effects of family ties on offending behavior over time. In addition, we look beyond traditional measures of social bonds (i.e., marital status and employment) and assess the impact of the stability of family support on reoffending outcomes. The current research explores the criminal career trajectories of a sample of 318 Canadian individuals convicted of a sexual offense and released back into their communities. Analyses yielded two distinct groups of offenders: one displaying a very low rate of reoffending that continued to decline over the follow-up period, and the other showing a higher rate of reoffending but also with steady declines throughout the observation period. Findings showed that while marriage was not significantly associated with reoffending, stable family support was significantly linked to reduced reoffending. We also found evidence of a sustained effect of family support on reoffending over a 3-year period. These findings underline the importance of expanding beyond the traditional measures of social bonds conventionally used in desistance studies.
尽管关于犯罪中止的研究越来越多,但专门研究性犯罪中止的研究相对较少。关于一般中止文献中的发现是否适用于被判犯有性犯罪的个人,人们知之甚少。本研究探讨了这个问题。鉴于社会支持网络在犯罪中止过程中的重要性,本研究侧重于家庭支持指标对再犯罪结果的影响。我们还研究了家庭关系随时间推移对犯罪行为的持续影响。此外,我们超越了传统的社会联系衡量标准(即婚姻状况和就业),评估了家庭支持的稳定性对再犯罪结果的影响。本研究探讨了一个由 318 名因性犯罪被释放回社区的加拿大个体组成的样本的犯罪生涯轨迹。分析得出了两类不同的罪犯:一类再犯罪率非常低,且在随访期间持续下降;另一类再犯罪率较高,但在整个观察期间也稳步下降。研究结果表明,虽然婚姻与再犯罪没有显著关联,但稳定的家庭支持与减少再犯罪显著相关。我们还发现了家庭支持对再犯罪的持续影响的证据,这种影响持续了 3 年。这些发现强调了超越传统的中止研究中常用的社会联系衡量标准的重要性。