Intergenerational offending

Abstract

Intergenerational offending refers to the observed phenomenon that offending tends to run in families. As small groups of families have been shown to be responsible for a considerable proportion of crime, there has been a substantial amount of effort expended in researching both the prevalence and patterns of such crime. The mechanisms by which intergenerational continuity of offending is generated, however, are not well understood. Perhaps more importantly, there is even less understanding about those factors that may prevent intergenerational offending. Given the strong focus on examining risk factors for offending, the observation that the majority of children in families where there is parental offending do not go on to become offenders themselves seems to have become lost in the discussion. This article presents a brief overview of research that aims to understand the intergenerational transmission of offending, but then goes on to argue that we need to develop our understanding of protective factors and resistance as well if we are to improve our efforts at prevention. An understanding of the internal and external resources and strategies utilised by those who resist criminal behaviour will enable researchers and policy makers to rigorously examine and verify these, and implement relevant supportive strategies.

Like mother, like child? Sex differences in the maternal transmission of offending among a Scottish cohort of pre-adolescent children

“…Our findings regarding the transmission of offending from mothers to daughters are consistent with other studies, such as Auty et al (2017) and Tzoumakis et al (2020), both of whom identified stronger same-sex effects, which might be attributed in part to learnt gender roles. The lack of association between girls’ offending and the wider constellation of risk factors identified in other studies, such as growing up in poverty or other aspects of family dysfunction, could suggest that girls are more resistant to criminogenic environments than boys (an area of research that is highly under-developed according to Flynn et al, 2017). While out with the scope of this article, this might relate to gendered behavioural expectations learnt in childhood.…”

“…While these four theoretical perspectives are not exhaustive, they do provide a useful framework by which to understand the most common hypotheses of intergenerational offending. However, on the important question of whether the effect of mothers is likely to differ from that of fathers, the research is ‘surprisingly limited’ (Besemer et al, 2016: 436), with existing theories predominantly based on studies of offending among fathers and sons (Flynn et al, 2017; Tzoumakis et al, 2020). This contrasts sharply with other disciplinary areas, such as child psychology and development, in which theories are dominated by studies examining the influence of mothers (Detweiler et al, 2010).…”