Citation

Doherty EE, Cwick JM, Green KM, Ensminger ME. Justice Q. 2016; 33(6): 970-999.

Affiliation

Department of Health, Behavior and Society, Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health, 624 N. Broadway, 7 Floor, Baltimore, MD 21205, 410-955-2308.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, Publisher Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/07418825.2015.1016089

PMID

27616814

PMCID

PMC5015121

Abstract

The life course perspective has traditionally examined prevalent adult life events, such as marriage and employment, and their potential to redirect offending trajectories. However, for African Americans, the life events of arrest and incarceration are becoming equally prevalent in young adulthood. Therefore, it is critical to understand how these "standard" criminal justice practices, which are designed to deter as well as punish, affect deviance among this population. This study evaluates the long-term consequences of criminal justice intervention on substance use and offending into midlife among an African American community cohort using propensity score matching and multivariate regression analyses. The results largely point to a criminogenic effect of criminal justice intervention on midlife deviance with a particularly strong effect of young adult arrest on rates of violent and property arrest counts into midlife. The theoretical and policy implications of the findings are discussed.

Language: en