DiPietro Stephanie M, Doherty Elaine Eggleston, Bersani Bianca E
Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of Missouri - St. Louis, One University Boulevard, St. Louis, MO 63121, USA.
Department of Sociology, University of Massachusetts Boston, 100 Morrissey Boulevard, Boston, MA 02125-3393, USA.
J Dev Life Course Criminol. 2018 Jun;4(2):162-187. doi: 10.1007/s40865-018-0079-8. Epub 2018 Feb 14.
Black women remain a traditionally understudied population in life course criminology and in studies of criminal desistance specifically. This work contributes to the desistance literature by focusing on within-group heterogeneity among black women, and examining whether variation in the structural position (measured at both distal and proximate points in the life course) conditions the relationship between a well-recognized correlate of desistance-marriage-and offending.
The sample of 636 black females is drawn from the Woodlawn project, a longitudinal, interdisciplinary study of social adaptation, psychological well-being, and crime in a Chicago community cohort of black Americans who were in first grade in 1966. To test for potential moderating effects of structural position on the marriage-offending link, we employ hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) to simultaneously estimate variation in crime within-individuals while accounting for between-individual differences in offending.
Findings suggest that both childhood and adult measures of structural position condition the marriage-offending link in important ways. Most notably, black women who are more socioeconomically disadvantaged reap greater benefits from marriage-in the form of a reduced probability of offending-than their more advantaged counterparts.
To the degree that women's pathways to offending are shaped by their socioeconomic marginalization, the practical benefits of marriage (e.g., economic improvement) might surpass other traditionally recognized mechanisms of desistance (e.g., social bonds) in their importance. Future life course research should highlight the complexity of lived experiences by explicitly considering one's race, gender, and social-structural position.
在生命历程犯罪学，特别是在犯罪停止研究中，黑人女性一直是传统上研究不足的群体。这项研究通过关注黑人女性群体内部的异质性，并考察结构位置的变化（在生命历程的远端和近端进行测量）是否调节了犯罪停止的一个公认相关因素——婚姻与犯罪之间的关系，为犯罪停止文献做出了贡献。
636名黑人女性的样本来自伍德劳恩项目，这是一项对1966年就读于一年级的美国芝加哥黑人社区队列的社会适应、心理健康和犯罪情况进行的纵向跨学科研究。为了检验结构位置对婚姻与犯罪关系的潜在调节作用，我们采用分层线性模型（HLM），在考虑个体间犯罪差异的同时，同时估计个体内部犯罪的变化。
研究结果表明，童年和成年时期的结构位置测量都在重要方面调节了婚姻与犯罪的关系。最值得注意的是，社会经济地位较低的黑人女性从婚姻中获得的益处更大——以犯罪概率降低的形式——比她们社会经济地位较高的同龄人更大。
就女性犯罪途径受其社会经济边缘化影响的程度而言，婚姻的实际益处（如经济改善）在重要性上可能超过其他传统上公认的犯罪停止机制（如社会纽带）。未来的生命历程研究应通过明确考虑一个人的种族、性别和社会结构位置，突出生活经历的复杂性。
