Peggy C. Giordano

Gender, Crime, and Desistance: Toward a Theory of Cognitive Transformation

This article analyzes data derived from the first detailed long‐term follow‐up of a sample of serious adolescent female delinquents and similarly situated males. Neither marital attachment nor job stability, factors frequently associated with male desistance from crime, were strongly related to female or male desistance. A symbolic‐interactionist perspective on desistance is developed as a counterpoint to Sampson and Laub’s theory of informal social control, and life history narratives are used to illustrate the perspective. This cognitive theory is generally compatible with a control approach but (a) adds specificity regarding underlying change mechanisms, (b) explains some negative cases, and (c) fits well with life course challenges facing contemporary serious female (and more provisionally male) offenders.

Hooking Up: The Relationship Contexts of "Nonrelationship" Sex.

More than one half of sexually active teens have had sexual partners they are not dating. However, remarkably little is known about the nature of these sexual relationships. Using survey and qualitative data from the Toledo Adolescent Relationships Study the authors contrast the qualities of dating sexual relationships and sexual relationships that occur out-side the dating context. They find that adolescents having sex outside of the dating context are choosing partners who are friends or ex-girlfriends and/or boyfriends. Moreover, one third of these nondating sexual partnerships are associated with hopes or expectations that the relationship will lead to more conventional dating relationships. Boys and girls who experience sex outside of conventional dating relationships often share similar orientations toward their relationship. Results suggest that a more nuanced view is key to understanding adolescent sexual behavior.

Emotions and Crime over the Life Course: A Neo-Meadian Perspective on Criminal Continuity and Change

A symbolic interactionist perspective on the emotions is presented that highlights their social character, forges links to cognitive processes, and suggests ways in which emotions influence long‐term patterns of criminal involvement. This neo‐Meadian perspective contrasts with theories of desistance that focus on the role of informal social controls and develops the view of an emotional self that flourishes somewhat independent of the major role transitions typically emphasized in sociological studies of the life course. The authors also explore ways in which attention to the emotional realms of experience adds to traditional treatments of the impact of adult transition events (e.g., the “good marriage effect”). Interviews with male and female adolescent offenders and two waves of adult follow‐up data document general patterns of association and support the argument that a social view of emotional processes is critical to a comprehensive understanding of life course patterns of criminal continuity and change.

Self-Esteem, Depressive Symptoms, and Adolescents' Sexual Onset

We examine whether self-esteem and depressive symptoms influence sexual onset when important controls such as age, dating, race, and income are examined. Analyses are based on the first two waves of the restricted-use sample of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. We examine adolescents who reported at wave 1 that they had not had sexual intercourse. Using logistic regression models run separately for males and for females, we find that depressive symptoms, when entered simultaneously, exert a greater effect than self-esteem on sexual onset. Depressive symptoms have less effect on sexual onset for African-American girls than for white girls. Higher self-esteem is associated with greater likelihood of sexual debut at older ages for boys. Our findings suggest that although many positive benefits of self-esteem have been suggested, the conceptual and empirical link between depressive symptoms and adolescent sexual onset may be more crucial.

Predicting Adolescent and Adult Antisocial Behavior Among Adjudicated Delinquent Females

Studies identifying the mechanisms underlying the causes and consequences of antisocial behavior among female delinquents as they transit to adulthood are scarce and have important limitations: Most are based on official statistics, they typically are restricted to normative samples, and rarely do they gather prospective data from samples of high-risk females. By contrast, this research is based on a longitudinal sample of females who were interviewed initially in 1982 (n = 127) when they were institutionalized adolescent offenders, and subsequently as young adults in 1995 (n = 109). Our analyses, focusing on the impact of a variety of family factors derived from social control and strain theory, show that physical and sexual abuse during childhood and adolescence are potent predictors of adult criminality, though not of adolescent delinquency. The implications of the long-term negative impact of childhood and adolescent abuse are discussed, and concrete policy recommendations offered.

On Complicating the Relationship Between Liberation and Delinquency

The popular notion that the womens movement is responsible for an increase in female crime oversimplifies the concept of liberation. Distinctions are made between womens traditionality or nontraditionality in various roles—societal, familial or interpersonal, and within the realm of the criminal act itself. Data derived from a questionnaire administered in three urban high schools and two state institutions for girls suggest that there is little or no association between liberated attitudes and self-reported delinquency involvement. But at the level of the criminal act itself, there is evidence of perhaps more significant change. Females are most likely to commit delinquent acts in groups, particularly mixed-sex groups, in contrast to the traditional stereotype of females passively accompanying a romantic partner. Their explanations for their participation also depart from feminine stereotypes and resemble explanations most often associated with male delinquents.

Race, Crime, and the American Dream:

Although strain and social control theories assign a central role to the influence of the American dream on criminal behavior, little research has examined its impact on African Americans. Furthermore, while the criminology literature is replete with studies of the influence of aspirations and expectations on behavior, few of these have exphasized the economic goals so central to the core tenets of the American dream. In contrast, this study is based on a sample approximately half African American and measures the American dream in economic terms. The findings indicate that African Americans maintain a stronger commitment to the American dream than do Whites, but the nature of its influence on behavior offers little support for social control theory among either Whites or Blacks. Its effect is, however, consistent with strain theory, but only among Whites. The implications of the inapplicability of both strain and control theories to African Americans are discussed.

Relationship Churning in Emerging Adulthood On/Off Relationships and Sex With an Ex

We build on the emerging adulthood literature to examine two forms of relationship instability, reconciliations and sex with an ex; we term these forms of relationship churning. Analyzing recent data on emerging adult daters and cohabitors (n = 792), we find that nearly half report a reconciliation (a breakup followed by reunion) and over half of those who break up continue a sexual relationship (sex with an ex). We analyze individual demographic, social psychological, and relationship factors associated with reconciliations and sex with an ex. These findings showcase that emerging adult relationships are characterized by considerable uncertainty and add to our theoretical and empirical understanding of stability in romantic relationships in emerging adulthood.

Contraceptive self-efficacy: does it influence adolescents contraceptive use?

This research investigates the relationship between contraceptive self-efficacy and contraceptive use, measured one year later, among adolescent boys and girls. Data are obtained from the two waves of the restricted use sample of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (n = 3,577). Employing multiple regression and logistic regression strategies, we examine whether demographic and background characteristics influence contraceptive self-efficacy, and whether contraceptive self-efficacy increases the likelihood of contraceptive use. We find that adolescents who are female, older, live with step-parents, and whose mothers approve of contraceptive use report higher contraceptive self-efficacy, while adolescents whose mothers did not complete high school report lower contraceptive self-efficacy. Results partially support the expectation that adolescents with higher contraceptive self-efficacy act accordingly by using contraceptives.

Intimate Partner Violence and Depressive Symptoms during Adolescence and Young Adulthood

Using longitudinal data from the Toledo Adolescent Relationships Study, we examine the relationship between intimate partner violence (IPV) and depressive symptoms during adolescence and young adulthood (N = 1,273) while controlling for time-stable and time-varying correlates. Results show temporal changes in depressive symptoms, such that increases in depressive symptoms correspond to IPV exposure. While prior work has theorized that certain populations may be at increased psychological vulnerability from IPV, results indicate that both perpetration and victimization are associated with increases in depressive symptoms for both men and women, and irrespective of whether IPV exposure occurred in adolescence or young adulthood. Cumulative exposure to IPV does not appear to increase depressive symptoms beyond the effect observed for the most recent IPV exposure, but physical maltreatment by a parent does appear to diminish the association between IPV perpetration and depressive symptoms for a small subset of the sample.