Intergenerational Transmission of Trajectories of Offending over Three Generations

• PurposeCrime runs in families: a convicted parent is a risk factor for children’s criminality. What is the extent of intergenerational transmission in Sweden? Is transmission similar for men and women and/or do we see gender-specific transmission? To what extent do children follow similar offending trajectories as their parents?MethodsWe used group-based trajectory modelling to study intergenerational transmission in the Stockholm Life Course Project. By merging the samples when running the trajectory models, we get a more robust model than if we had run the samples separately.ResultsChildren of convicted parents are about 2–2.6 times more likely to have a conviction compared with children of non-convicted parents. We did not find strong support that intergenerational transmission is stronger for same-gender relationships. Transmission seems slightly stronger to daughters and from mothers, but few of these patterns are significant. Although father and offspring trajectories look similar, the significant relationship can be explained by the observation that non-offending fathers are more likely to have non-offending sons. Fathers with more chronic offending trajectories do not necessarily predict sons with similar more chronic offending trajectories.ConclusionsWe find strong intergenerational transmission of criminal behaviour, but offspring convictions are related to the fact that fathers have a conviction rather than to what their conviction trajectory looks like.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Sociologi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Sociology (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Intergenerational transmission

Trajectories

Offending

Sweden

kriminologi

Criminology

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

art (ämneskategori)