The Impact of Life Domains on Juvenile Offending in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Abstract

Objectives: Agnew has proposed an integrative theoretical construct composed of the most influential predictors of crime concentrated within multiple life domains, including the self, family, school, peer, and work. Limited research has explored the impact of life domains on offending. This study presents a partial test of the theory using an international sample. Methods: Nationally representative self-reported data are derived from 1,756 juveniles residing in Bosnia and Herzegovina who participated in wave 2 of the International Self Report Delinquency Study. A series of multivariate Downloaded from models were run to examine the impact life domains have on crime directly and indirectly, as well as looking at interaction effects among the life domains. Results: Data showcased varying levels of support for the life domains. Across bivariate and multivariate models, the most significant positive relationships between offending and the life domains were evident in the self and peer domains, with the school and family domains exhibiting a negative impact on offending. Furthermore, significant interactive and indirect effects were discovered, primarily for the self and peer domains. Conclusions: This research discovered a moderate level of support for life domains contained within Agnew's integrated theory for offending within an international context.

The Effects of Life Domains, Constraints, and Motivations on Academic Dishonesty: A Partial Test and Extension of Agnew’s General Theory

“…Ngo and Paternoster (2014) observed significant domain effects for variables from the life domains of the self, family, and peers on adolescent substance use. In the only test with data outside the United States, Muftic and her colleagues (2014) observed significant relationships between criminal offending and factors representing the self, family, peer, and school domains. Finally, Zhang et al (2012) were the only to test for both direct and indirect life domain effects.…”

“…That is, criminal/delinquent behavior is seen as the result of the direct effects of constraints and motivations and the indirect effects of life domains as these are mediated by constraints and motivations, though the theory also allows for some direct effects of the life domains as well. Past attempts to provide partial tests of this general theory have provided consistent, yet modest support for it (Muftic et al, 2014; Ngo & Paternoster, 2014; Ngo et al, 2011; Zhang et al, 2012). Most of these studies have tested the theory against data from adolescent samples and have either conflated constraints and motivations within life domains or neglected to include measures of either constraints or motivations.…”

“…The present study attempts to add to this small area of scholarship by providing another partial test of Agnew’s general theory with self-reported survey data on college student academic dishonesty. In doing so, it adds to the literature in several small ways: (a) only one of the four previous tests of Agnew’s general theory has examined the effects of constraints and/or motivations (see Zhang et al, 2012), the current study constitutes the second study to do so; (b) only one of the four previous tests employed a sample of adults (Ngo et al, 2011), the present study, based on a sample of college students, constitutes the second such study; (c) some of the previous tests of Agnew’s general theory lacked measures of each life domain (see Muftic et al, 2014; Ngo & Paternoster, 2014; Zhang et al, 2012), the present study employs multiple indicators of each while also suggesting religion as an additional, potential, life domain; and finally (d) while Agnew’s general theory was originally proposed to predict criminal and delinquent behavior, the present study attempts to expand its scope to include deviant behavior in the form of academic dishonesty.…”

“…Despite the appeal of Agnew’s effort, only a few have tested this general theory, even in part (cf. Muftic, Grubb, Bouffard, & Maljevic, 2014; Ngo & Paternoster, 2014; Ngo, Paternoster, Cullen, & Mackenzie, 2011; Zhang, Day, & Cao, 2012). The present study attempts to add to this small area of scholarship by providing a partial test and extension of Agnew’s general theory with self-reported survey data on college student academic dishonesty.…”

Life Domains, Constraints, Motivations, and Intimate Partner Violence: Assessing the Generality of Agnew’s General Theory of Crime and Delinquency

“…Overall, findings from prior research provide support for Agnew's integrated perspective in that the measures representing self, family, school, and peer domains are associated with various delinquent and deviant behaviors, occurring both online and offline (Cochran, 2017;Kabiri et al, 2020;Muftić et al, 2014;Ngo & Paternoster, 2014;Roh et al, 2022). The hypothesized mediating effects of the constraint and motivation factors (Cochran, 2017;Zhang et al, 2012) and the efficacy of Agnew's framework in accounting for sex differences in offending, albeit preliminary, have also received some support (Ngo et al, 2022).…”