Comparing Official and Self-report Records of Offending across Gender and Race/Ethnicity in a Longitudinal Study of Serious Youthful Offenders

Abstract

Objectives: Researchers have used both self-reports and official records to measure the prevalence and frequency of crime and delinquency. Few studies have compared longitudinally the validity of these two measures across gender and race/ethnicity in order to assess concordance. Methods: Using data from the Pathways to Desistance, a longitudinal study of 1,354 serious youthful offenders, we compare official records of arrest and self-reports of arrest over seven years. Results: Findings show moderate agreement between self-reports and official arrests, which is fairly stable over time and quite similar across both gender and race/ethnicity. We do not find any race differences in the prevalence of official arrests, but do observe a gender difference in official arrests that is not accounted for by self-reported arrests. Conclusions: Further work on issues on the validity and reliability of different forms of offending data across demographic groups is needed.

Arrest Prevalence in a National Sample of Adults: The Role of Sex and Race/Ethnicity

“…Thus, the results may reflect both arrest prevalence as well as one's propensity to answer truthfully to questions regarding sensitive topics. Recall Piquero et al (2014) showed a moderate level of concordance between self-report and official records of arrest, suggesting there may be little difference between the prevalence rates reported here and the observed prevalence of arrest in official statistics. The second primary limitation was that respondents were young adults and, therefore, the findings may not generalize to middle or older adults.…”

“…Piquero, Schubert, and Brame (2014) used both self-reported arrests and official arrest records to examine correspondence between these two measures longitudinally within a sample of serious youthful offenders from the Pathways to Desistance study. The study found a moderate level of congruence between self-report measures and official records and that the agreement was stable over time.…”

The Effects of Age at Prison Release on Women’s Desistance Trajectories: a Mixed-Method Analysis

“…Previous studies suggest that this is a common phenomenon [40,95]. To more accurately capture desistance, we operationalize desistance using self-reported behavior for our qualitative analyses.…”

Predicting Consistency Between Officially Recorded and Self-Reported Records of Arrest

“…It is commonly accepted that there are three primary sources from which data are obtained to study delinquency and criminality: self-reports, officially recorded data, and victimization reports (Maxfield, Weiler, & Widom, 2000;Piquero, Schubert, & Brame, 2014; see also Weis, 1986 who also included direct observations and informant reports as data sources). Salient to the current project, research on arrests, whether self-reported or officially reported, relies heavily upon official data and/or data containing selfreported measures of arrest (Piquero et al, 2014;Pollock, Oliver, & Menard, 2014) because victimization studies, which are victim-based, do not lend themselves usefully to the study of arrest prevalence, which is offender-based (Weis, 1986).…”

“…Salient to the current project, research on arrests, whether self-reported or officially reported, relies heavily upon official data and/or data containing selfreported measures of arrest (Piquero et al, 2014;Pollock, Oliver, & Menard, 2014) because victimization studies, which are victim-based, do not lend themselves usefully to the study of arrest prevalence, which is offender-based (Weis, 1986). The use of selfreport data is generally seen as an accepted method of measurement in the field of arrest research because of the findings of extensive research on the validity of self-report data as a measure of delinquency as mentioned above, but also because the use of self-report data in measuring arrest (as opposed to relying only upon officially-recorded arrests) is gaining traction (Hser, Anglin, & Chou, 1992;Maxfield et al, 2000;Piquero et al, 2014;Pollock, Menard, Elliott, & Huizinga, 2015).…”