Sanctions, short‐term mindsets, and delinquency: Reverse causality in a sample of high school youth

Legal and Criminological Psychology, vol. 25, pp. 199–218

Abstract

Purpose We question the commonly assumed view of a fixed causal ordering between self‐control, delinquency, and sanctions and test the hypothesis that experiencing sanctions may reduce levels of self‐control, thereby increasing the risk of future delinquent behaviour. As a subsidiary goal, we argue for a parsimonious view of self‐control that is limited to its key components, risk‐taking, and impulsivity. Methods We use three waves of data from the Zurich Project on the Social Development from Childhood into Adulthood (z‐proso), an ongoing prospective longitudinal study of Swiss urban youth ( N = 1,197), and include police contacts and school sanctions as predictors of delinquency. We test our hypothesis using path analysis and control for a series of potential confounders, including prior levels of self‐control and earlier delinquency. Results In line with our hypothesis, the results indicate that sanctioning reduces levels of self‐control, net of prior levels of self‐control, and earlier delinquency and that self‐control mediates the relation between sanctioning and subsequent delinquency. Conclusions We conclude that the relation between self‐control and crime may be bi‐ rather than unidirectional with sanctions reducing levels of self‐control, which in turn contributes to criminal behaviour. Implications for theory are discussed.

Authors 4

1. Jean‐Louis van Gelder corresponding Aachen Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences Leiden University The Netherlands Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences

   Leiden University · Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security and Law

   Affiliation as printed

   Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences Leiden University The Netherlands

   Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security and Law Freiburg Germany

   Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Leiden University, The Netherlands

   Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security and Law, Freiburg, Germany

2. Margit Averdijk

   University of Zurich

   Affiliation as printed

   Jacobs Center for Productive Youth Development University of Zurich Switzerland

   Jacobs Center for Productive Youth Development, University of Zurich, Switzerland

3. Denis Ribeaud

   University of Zurich

   Affiliation as printed

   Jacobs Center for Productive Youth Development University of Zurich Switzerland

   Jacobs Center for Productive Youth Development, University of Zurich, Switzerland

4. Manuel Eisner

   University of Zurich · University of Cambridge

   Affiliation as printed

   Institute of Criminology University of Cambridge UK

   Jacobs Center for Productive Youth Development University of Zurich Switzerland

   Institute of Criminology, University of Cambridge, UK

   Jacobs Center for Productive Youth Development, University of Zurich, Switzerland