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Does Educational Marginalization Mediate the Path from Childhood Cumulative Risk to Criminal Offending?

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Abstract

Purpose

Early exposure to multiple risk factors is known to predict involvement in criminal offending. The purpose of this study was to examine the processes responsible for this association. Specifically, the focus was on the capacity of adolescent educational experience to mediate the effect of childhood cumulative risk (CCR) on criminal offending, net of expected continuity in antisocial propensity, and behavior.

Methods

Data from the Northern Finland Birth Cohort Study 1986 (n = 5743) were used to estimate a structural equation model to examine the hypothesized pathways. The educational pathway was captured by a latent variable (educational marginalization) consisting of indicators of low academic performance, weak school attachment, and low educational aspirations.

Results

CCR had a strong positive relation with educational marginalization, which, in turn, emerged as a statistically significant predictor of having criminal record by age 19. Although continuity in antisocial behavior accounted for most of the total effect of CCR on criminal offending, one-third of it was mediated by educational marginalization.

Conclusions

The results highlight the adolescent educational experience as a promising target of intervention in efforts to curb criminal careers among children at risk.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of Nebraska, Omaha, 6001 Dodge Street, 218 CPACS, Omaha, NE, 68182, USA

    Starr J. Solomon

  2. Institute for Social Research, ICPSR, University of Michigan, P.O. Box 1248, Ann Arbor, MI, 48106, USA

    Jukka Savolainen

  3. Boys Town National Research Institute for Child and Family Studies, 14100 Crawford Street, Boys Town, NE, 68010, USA

    W. Alex Mason

  4. Center for Life Course Health Research, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oulu, P.O. Box 5000, 90014, Oulu, Finland

    Jouko Miettunen & Marjo-Riitta Järvelin

  5. Medical Research Center Oulu, Oulu University Hospital, Oulu, Finland

    Jouko Miettunen

  6. Department of Psychiatry, Unit for Clinical Neuroscience, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland

    Jouko Miettunen

  7. Department of Psychology, University of South Carolina, 1512 Pendleton Street, Columbia, SC, 29208, USA

    Stacy-Ann A. January

  8. Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, MRC PHE Centre for Environment and Health, School of Public Health, Imperial College, One Kemble Street, London, WC2B 4AN, UK

    Marjo-Riitta Järvelin

  9. Biocenter Oulu, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland

    Marjo-Riitta Järvelin

  10. Unit of Primary Care, Oulu University Hospital, Oulu, Finland

    Marjo-Riitta Järvelin

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  1. Starr J. Solomon
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Solomon, S.J., Savolainen, J., Mason, W.A. et al. Does Educational Marginalization Mediate the Path from Childhood Cumulative Risk to Criminal Offending?. J Dev Life Course Criminology 3, 326–346 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40865-017-0062-9

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