Weak parental supervision and lack of child remorse as predictors of proximal crime continuity in early-to-mid adolescent delinquents

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to determine whether core constructs from the control (impulsivity resulting from poor parental discipline leads to crime) and moral (weak moral values lead to crime) models of criminal lifestyle development were capable of predicting crime continuance in early-to-mid adolescent youth.

Design/methodology/approach

Weak parental supervision and lack of remorse for antisocial conduct on the part of the child were correlated with subsequent delinquency in 1,850 (1,685 males, 165 females) early-to-mid adolescent delinquents. Analyses were based exclusively on data extracted from New York City probation, family court and police files.

Findings

Results from a negative binomial regression analysis revealed that both weak parental supervision and lack of remorse for antisocial conduct predicted subsequent delinquency over a period of six months, net the effects of age, sex, ethnicity, prior delinquency, sibling delinquency, negative peer associations, substance use and a felony charge.

Research limitations/implications

These findings provide preliminary support for the control (low parental supervision) and moral (lack of remorse) models of criminal lifestyle development.

Practical implications

Weak parental supervision and failure to express remorse for antisocial actions increased risk of future delinquency by 19% and 29%, respectively. Teaching parents to be more effective disciplinarians and encouraging the development of moral values in youthful offenders may be of value in promoting desistance to crime in early juvenile offenders.

Originality/value

The importance of these results is that they reinforce prior findings obtained using self-report measures with data collected from official records.

Citation

Walters, G.D. (2021), "Weak parental supervision and lack of child remorse as predictors of proximal crime continuity in early-to-mid adolescent delinquents", Journal of Criminal Psychology, Vol. 11 No. 1, pp. 59-71. https://doi.org/10.1108/JCP-10-2020-0043