The Impact of Changes in Family Situations on Persistence and Desistance from Crime

Abstract

This chapter emphasizes the significance of the family environment in the onset, persistence, and desistance from offending. Consequently, family effects have been empirically examined in the criminological literature for several decades, with the most recent attention devoted to the effects of marriage on patterns of desistance. This chapter reviews the literature on the effects of getting married but also considers the relatively limited evidence on the effects of cohabitation. Next, the chapter considers the evidence on the effects of parenthood and reviews the effect of separation/divorce on offending. Much of the empirical work in this area has studied effects on men, but the relatively limited literature on the effects on women is also reviewed.