title: With or Without You? Contextualizing the Impact of Romantic Relationship Breakup on Crime Among Serious Adolescent Offenders.
abstract: The decline and delay of marriage has prolonged adolescence and the transition to adulthood, and consequently fostered greater romantic relationship fluidity during a stage of the life course that is pivotal for both development and offending. Yet, despite a growing literature of the consequences of romantic relationships breakup, little is known about its connection with crime, especially among youth enmeshed in the criminal justice system. This article addresses this gap by examining the effects of relationship breakup on crime among justice-involved youth-a key policy-relevant group. We refer to data from the Pathways to Desistance Study, a longitudinal study of 1354 (14% female) adjudicated youth from the juvenile and adult court systems in Phoenix and Philadelphia, to assess the nature and complexity of this association. In general, our results support prior evidence of breakup's criminogenic influence. Specifically, they suggest that relationship breakup's effect on crime is particularly acute among this at-risk sample, contingent upon post-breakup relationship transitions, and more pronounced for relationships that involve cohabitation. Our results also extend prior work by demonstrating that breakup is attenuated by changes in psychosocial characteristics and peer associations/exposure. We close with a discussion of our findings, their policy implications, and what they mean for research on relationships and crime among serious adolescent offenders moving forward.
authors.affiliation: Department of Criminal Justice, Wayne State University, 3291 Faculty/Administration Building, Detroit, MI, 48202, USA. mattjlarson@wayne.edu.
authors.forename: Matthew
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Larson
authors.affiliation: School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Arizona State University, 411 N. Central Avenue, MC 4420, Phoenix, AZ, 85004, USA. Gary.Sweeten@asu.edu.
authors.forename: Gary
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Sweeten
authors.affiliation: Ashbel Smith Professor of Criminology, Program in Criminology, EPPS, University of Texas at Dallas, 800 W. Campbell Road, GR31, Richardson, TX, 75080, USA.
authors.forename: Alex R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Piquero
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology; D001130:Arizona; D003415:Crime / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D057237:Criminals; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D010379:Peer Group; D015143:Philadelphia; D012747:Sexual Partners / Q000523:psychology
keywords: Breakup; Cohabitation; Crime; Romantic relationships; Transition to adulthood