Biomedical subjects

Alex R Piquero

Publications and source records attributed to Alex R Piquero.

8 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Deterrence and arrest ratios.

In the limited research on the origins of sanction threat perceptions, researchers have focused on either the effects of actively engaging in crime or the effects of formal sanctioning but rarely on both (i.e., the arrest ratio or the number of arrests relative to the number of crimes committed). This article extends this line of research by using a sample of Colorado inmates and measures arrest ratios and sanction perceptions for eight different crime types. Analyses reveal that the offenders report both significant experiential and arrest ratio effects. Theoretical and policy implications, limitations, and directions for future research are outlined.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2005

The relationship between life satisfaction, risk-taking behaviors, and youth violence.

This study builds on existing criminological theories and examines the role of life satisfaction and self-control in explaining youth violence. Using data from a stratified cluster sample of 5,414 public high school students who responded to the South Carolina Youth Risk Behavior Survey, the study examines the relationship between adolescents'perceptions of life satisfaction, behavioral risky acts, and self-reported acts of violence. Analyses indicate that higher levels of life satisfaction are associated with lower violence. Participation in work and involvement in health-related risk-taking behaviors pertaining to sex, drugs, and alcohol are also associated with increased violence. The implications of these findings for criminological theory and for school-based violence prevention programs are discussed.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2004

A preliminary empirical test of Silverthorn and Frick's delayed-onset pathway in girls using an urban, African-American, US-based sample.

BACKGROUND: Silverthorn and Frick argued that there is no pathway to criminal activity among girls that is analogous to the early-onset/life-course-persistent-type one among boys. Instead, they argued for a female-specific theory in which even girls with the same high-risk backgrounds and criminal outcomes as early-onset/life-course-persistent boys show delayed-onset offending. AIMS: To test the Silverthorn Frick model of gender-specific pathways to offending in an independent cohort. METHODS: A cohort of 987 urban, African-American males and females participated in the Philadelphia portion of the National Collaborative Perinatal Project which collected biological, psychological and sociological variables. By age 18, 220 of these individuals had incurred a least one police contact, of which 64 did so under the age of 13. A criminal history follow-up was conducted in 1998 when cohort members had all reached their mid-thirties. RESULTS: Females and males were equally likely to experience early-onset offending (police contact by age 13), but female late-onset offenders resembled male early-onset offenders on nine of 10 risk factors. Male early-onset offenders had worse criminal outcomes compared with female and male late-onset offenders, but did not differ from female early-onset offenders. Female late-onset offenders showed many similarities on key risk factors to male late-onset offenders. CONCLUSIONS: Silverthorn and Frick may have over-estimated the outcome similarity of late-onset offending females to early-onset males and under-estimated occurrence of early-onset-life-course persistent offending in females. In so far as cohort studies such as these inform social policy, it is likely to be important that they are interpreted with sensitivity to minority needs.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2004

Heterogeneity in the association between social-emotional adjustment profiles and deviant behavior among male and female serious juvenile offenders.

This article examines the relation among gender, social-emotional adjustment, and deviant behavior among serious juvenile offenders. A sample of 105 adolescent offenders completed questionnaires assessing social-emotional characteristics and self-reported involvement in deviant behaviors. Results indicate significant associations between distress and restraint in predicting deviance, a finding that was invariant across gender. Analysis of four distinct social-emotional profiles found that membership in the reactive group was associated with the greatest amount of deviant behavior. Results also indicate that not only do serious offending girls internalize more than serious offending boys, they appear equally likely to externalize. However, although boys exhibit less distress than girls, those boys who report high rates of deviance may exhibit internalizing and externalizing problems similar to girls. The use of social-emotional measures in general, and distinct profiles in particular, may aid in targeting specific programming and treatment in an effort to provide offenders with more effective interventions.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2003

A cluster-analytic investigation of MMPI profiles of serious male and female juvenile offenders.

OBJECTIVE: To use cluster analysis to identify psychological profiles and related mental health symptoms among male and female juvenile offenders. METHOD: Juvenile offenders (N = 141) incarcerated in the California Youth Authority completed the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) and the Massachusetts Youth Screening Instrument-Version 2 (MAYSI-2). RESULTS: MMPI cluster analysis revealed four distinct profiles: two for male and two for female juvenile offenders. Among males, we identified one Normative cluster with no clinically elevated scores. A second male cluster, labeled Disorganized, exhibited clinical elevations on scales 8 (Schizophrenia), 6 (Paranoia), 4 (Psychopathic Deviate), and 7 (Psychasthenia). Among females, two clinically elevated profiles emerged. One Impulsive-Antisocial cluster consisted of clinical elevations on scale 4 (Psychopathic Deviate), which has been consistently associated with delinquent and antisocial behavior. The second cluster, labeled Irritable-Isolated, produced elevations on MMPI scales 4 (Psychopathic Deviate), 8 (Schizophrenia), 6 (Paranoia), and 7 (Psychasthenia). There were no significant sex, ethnicity, or offense differences across clusters, but the clusters exhibit distinct psychiatric profiles (MMPI) and mental health symptoms (MAYSI-2). CONCLUSIONS: The findings indicate that not only do female offenders have more acute mental health symptoms and psychological disturbances than male offenders, they exhibit qualitatively distinct psychiatric profiles. Results reinforce the need for assessment of mental health symptoms for male and female juvenile offenders as well as sex-appropriate treatments.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2002

Does self-control account for the relationship between binge drinking and alcohol-related behaviours?

INTRODUCTION: Gottfredson and Hirschi's theory that there is an underlying factor accounting for all sorts of antisocial behaviour has attracted widespread theoretical and empirical attention. One of their most controversial statements is a 'generality' hypothesis, a notion that criminal, deviant and reckless acts are highly correlated because they are caused by individual differences in self-control. In this paper, we examine the extent to which self-control accounts for the relationship between two behaviours: binge drinking and involvement in alcohol-related behaviours, including criminal behaviour. METHOD: Questionnaires were given to students at a southern US university. A final sample of 241 students (35% males, 91% whites, aged 17-40). One question concerned binge-drinking, 11 others related to other alcohol-related behaviour; a 24-item scale measured self-control and sex was recorded. A probit model was used to test the effect of low self-control on binge drinking and on other alcohol-related behaviours. It was found that self-control exhibits a positive effect on both. But binge drinking and other alcohol-related behaviours are correlated, so a further analysis using a bivariate probit model was undertaken using a naïve model (no covariates), an unconstrained model (allowing self-control to exert a unique effect on both outcomes), and a constrained model forcing self-control to be the same for both outcomes. RESULTS: Our results suggest that while low self-control is a significant predictor of both binge drinking and alcohol-related problems, it does not fully account for the relationship between the two outcomes. In addition, separate estimation for each sex reveal a substantively different pattern of results. DISCUSSION: Further research is needed to disentangle the differences between the sexes. Situational factors, especially in males, may account for adverse alcohol-related behaviours. Other measures of self-control are also needed.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2002

Maternal cigarette smoking during pregnancy and life-course-persistent offending.

Evidence exists documenting the relationship between maternal cigarette smoking and offspring criminal behavior. Although efforts to understand this relationship in a theoretical framework have only recently emerged, attempts made have been grounded in Moffitt's developmental taxonomy of antisocial behavior. Specifically, maternal cigarette smoking is generally viewed as a potential disruption in the offspring's neuropsychological development, which is subsequently associated with life-course-persistent offending. Using a birth cohort of 987 African Americans, the authors extend previous research by empirically assessing, prospectively, the link between maternal cigarette smoking and life-course-persistent offending while using different operationalizations of Moffitt's offending categorization. The authors' findings offer some support for the relationship between maternal cigarette smoking and life-course-persistent offending, which is dependent on how this concept is operationalized.

Antisocial Personality Disorder↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Assessing the offending activity of criminal domestic violence suspects: offense specialization, escalation, and de-escalation evidence from the Spouse Assault Replication Program.

OBJECTIVE: Over the past quarter century, intimate partner violence research has occupied an increasingly important position in the research agenda of criminology, public policy, and public health. Yet, a number of questions about the criminal careers of domestic violence offenders remain unresolved. This study attempts to determine (1) the extent to which criminal domestic violence offenders specialize in violence, and (2) whether the severity of an offender's attacks against the same victim increase, decrease, or stay about the same over time. METHODS: Data from the Spouse Assault Replication Program (SARP) are used to address two questions corresponding to different features of the criminal careers of domestic violence offenders. RESULTS: The specialization analysis reveals that the majority of domestic violence offenders with prior official criminal records have been involved in nonviolent forms of criminal behavior in addition to domestic violence. The escalation analysis identifies groups of escalators and de-escalators as well as individuals who engage in stable low-level aggression and stable high-level aggression. CONCLUSIONS: Few SARP domestic violence offenders have been specializing exclusively in violence. There is also a heterogeneous mix of offenders who escalate and de-escalate the severity of their attacks over the short-term follow-up periods. Few studies have presented data consistent with the present study's findings. A longitudinal analysis of the criminal careers of domestic violence offender subtypes is critical for future research.

Criminal Law↗