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Author: VanEseltine, Matthew
Resulting in 1 citation.
1. VanEseltine, Matthew
The Good Marriage Effect among Recent Cohorts
Presented: Chicago IL, American Society of Criminology Annual Meeting, 2012
Cohort(s): NLSY97
Publisher: American Society of Criminology
Keyword(s): Crime; Marital Satisfaction/Quality; Marriage; National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (AddHealth)

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

The idea of the "good marriage effect" has become well-known in criminology: marriages, particularly those of high quality, lead to desistance from crime. The emphasis on quality comes largely from the work of Laub, Sampson, and colleagues using the recovered and revitalized Glueck data, where men's desistance was encouraged not merely by being married but by having a high level of marital attachment. This might not tell us the full story, however, as the Glueck data are limited to the family experiences of white men from Boston in the mid-to-late 20th century. Little other work on the marriage-crime relationship has operationalized and measured marital quality. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) and the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97), we can begin to answer several open questions about marriages and crime. How is criminal activity among recent cohorts influenced by relationships and relationship quality? How might these relationships vary by gender, race, and class? Mixed results suggest that a "good marriage" may still have a role in some desistance experiences, but also that the effect is limited in its reach.
Bibliography Citation
VanEseltine, Matthew. "The Good Marriage Effect among Recent Cohorts." Presented: Chicago IL, American Society of Criminology Annual Meeting, 2012.