title: Moral development and recidivism: a meta-analysis.
abstract: A meta-analysis of 19 studies (N = 15,992 offenders) showed a significant inverse relation between more mature moral development and recidivism. Moderator analyses revealed a larger effect size for moral cognition (r = .20) than for moral emotion (r = .11). Effect sizes for production measures (r = .57) were much larger than for recognition measures (r = .16) and unstructured (clinical) judgment (r = .10). Larger effect sizes were found for female delinquents (r = .32) than for male delinquents (r = .21). Only small differences in effect sizes were found between juvenile delinquents (r = .10) and adult delinquents (r = .16). Finally, self-report measures of recidivism revealed much larger effect sizes (r = .32) than official reports of recidivism (r = .09). The discussion focuses on the theoretical and practical meaning of the magnitude of the effect size for the relation between moral development and recidivism.
authors: University of Amsterdam, Netherlands. E.S.vanVugt@uva.nl
authors: Eveline
authors: E
authors: Van Vugt
authors: John
authors: J
authors: Gibbs
authors: Geert Jan
authors: GJ
authors: Stams
authors: Catrien
authors: C
authors: Bijleveld
authors: Jan
authors: J
authors: Hendriks
authors: Peter
authors: P
authors: van der Laan
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment; D009014:Morals; D011329:Prisoners / Q000523:psychology*; D012008:Recurrence