Abstract
Previous literature points to events during the transition to adulthood as important in understanding criminal offending over the life course. But youth in today’s inner cities are at high risk of experiencing periods of incarceration, which may compromise successful entry into adult roles. Indeed, incarceration has become so common among inner-city youth that it has been said to be a critical event during the transition to adulthood alongside transitions in education, employment, residence, marriage, and parenting. Drawing on data from the Pittsburgh Youth Study, this paper explores the place of incarceration in the transition to adulthood experiences of at-risk males. We offer a descriptive account of the relative frequency of incarceration vis-à-vis other, more traditional life events. Given the interrelationships between life events, we apply latent class cluster analysis to explore and identify typical combinations in which they occur. This allows us to present a “snapshot” of life trajectories among at-risk males at 25.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
The average posterior probabilities for the three clusters in this paper are 0.86, 0.84, and 0.92.
References
Arnett, J. J. (2000). Emerging adulthood: a theory of development from the late teens through the twenties. American Psychologist, 55, 469–480.
Bonczar, T. P., & Beck, A. J. (1997). Lifetime likelihood of going to state or federal prison. Bureau of Justice Statistics Bulletin, NCJ 1600092. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice.
Bonczar, T. P. (2003). Prevalence of Imprisonment in the U.S. Population, 1974–2001. Bureau of Justice Statistics Bulletin, NCJ 197976. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice.
Crosnoe, R., & Elder, G. H. (2002). Successful adaptation in the later years: a life course approach to aging. Social Psychology Quarterly, 65, 309–328.
Ellwood, D. T., & Jencks, C. (2004). The uneven spread of single-parent families: what do we know? Where do we look for answers? In K. Neckerman (Ed.), Social inequality (pp. 3–78). New York: Russel Sage Foundation.
Farrington, D. P., & Welsh, B. C. (2005). Randomized experiments in criminology: what have we learned in the last two decades? Journal of Experimental Criminology, 1, 9–38.
Finckenauer, J. O. (1980). Scared straight and the panacea phenomenon—discussion. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 347, 213–217.
Finkenauer, J. O., & Gavin, P. W. (1999). Scared straight: The panacea phenomenon revisited. Prospect Heights: Waveland.
Freeman, R. (1991). Employment and earnings of disadvantaged young men in a labor shortage economy. In C. Jencks (Ed.), The urban underclass (PE Peterson, pp. 103–121). Washington D.C.: The Brookings Institution.
Freeman, R. B. (1996). Why do so many young American men commit crimes and what might be done about it? Journal of Economic Perspectives, 10, 25–42.
Fussell, E., & Furstenberg, F. F., Jr. (2005). The transition to adulthood during the twentieth century. In R. A. Settersten Jr., F. F. Furstenberg Jr., & R. G. Rumbaut (Eds.), On the frontier of adulthood: Theory, research, and public policy (pp. 29–75). Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Garland, D. (2001). Culture of conflict: Crime and social order in contemporary society. Chicago: University Press.
Goldstein, J. R., & Kenney, C. T. (2001). Marriage delayed or marriage forgone? New cohort forecasts of first marriage for U.S. women. American Sociological Review, 66(4), 506–519.
Harrison, P., & Karberg, J. (2004). Prison and jail inmates at mid-year 2003. Bureau of Justice Statistics Bulletin. NCJ 203947. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office.
Jorgensen, J., Hernandez, S., & Warren, R. (1986). Addressing the social needs of families of prisoners: a tool for inmate rehabilitation. Federal Probation, 50, 47–52.
Kane, T. (2004). College-going and inequality. In K. Neckerman (Ed.), Social inequality (pp. 319–354). New York: Russel Sage Foundation.
Light, R. (1993). Why support prisoners’ family tie groups. Howard Journal of Criminal Justice, 32, 322–329.
Magnusson, D., & Bergman, L. R. (1990). A pattern approach to the study of pathways from childhood to adulthood. In L. N. Robins & M. Rutter (Eds.), Straight and devious pathways from childhood to adulthood (pp. 101–115). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Mortimer, J. T., & Larson, R. W. (2002). Macrostructural trends and the reshaping of adolescence. In J. T. Mortimer & R. W. Larson (Eds.), The changing adolescent experience (pp. 1–17). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Osgood, D. W., Ruth, G., Eccles, J. S., Jacobs, J. E., & Barber, B. L. (2005). Six paths to adulthood: fast starters, parents without careers, educated partners, educated singles, working singles, and slow starters. In R. A. Settersten Jr., F. F. Furstenberg Jr., & R. G. Rumbaut (Eds.), On the frontier of adulthood (pp. 320–355). Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Perelman, A. M., & Clements, C. B. (2009). Beliefs about what works in juvenile rehabilitation: the influence of attitudes on support for “Get Tough” and evidence-based interventions. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 36(2), 184–197.
Pettit, B., & Western, B. (2004). Mass imprisonment and the life course: race and class inequality in U.S. incarceration. American Sociological Review, 69, 151–169.
Petrosino, A., Turpin-Petrosino, C., & Finckenauer, J. O. (2000). Well-meaning programs can have harmful effects! Lessons from experiments of programs such as scared straight. Crime & Delinquency, 46(3), 354–379.
Pogrebin, M., Dodge, M., & Katsampes, P. (2001). The collateral costs of short-term jail incarceration: the long-term social and economic disruptions. Corrections Management Quarterly, 5, 64–69.
Rose, D. R., Clear, T. R., & Ryder, J. A. (2001). Addressing the unintended consequences of incarceration through community-oriented services at the neighborhood level. Corrections Management Quarterly, 5, 62–71.
Sampson, R. J., & Laub, J. H. (1993). Crime in the making: Pathways and turning points through life. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Singer, B., Ryff, C. D., Carr, D., & Magee, W. J. (1998). Linking life histories and mental health: a person-centered strategy. Sociological Methodology, 28, 1–51.
Smith, K. B. (2004). The politics of punishment: evaluating political explanations of incarceration rates. The Journal of Politics, 66(3), 925–938.
Spelman, W. (2009). Crime, cash, and limited options: explaining the prison boom. Criminology & Public Policy, 8(1), 29–77.
Solomon, A. L., Johnson, K. D., Travis, J, & McBride, E. C. (2004). From prison to work: The employment dimensions of prisoner reentry. The Urban Institute Justice Policy Center.
South, S. J. (1993). Racial and ethnic differences in the desire to marry. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 55, 137–370.
Stemen, D. (2007). Reconsidering incarceration: New directions for reducing crime. New York: Vera Institute of Justice.
Swanson, C. B. (2008). Cities in crisis: A special analytic report on high school graduation (pp. 1–15). Bethesda: Editorial Projects in Education Research Center.
Western, B. (2006). Punishment and inequality in the America. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
Wilson, W. J. (1996). When work disappears: The world of the new urban poor. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
Acknowledgements
We warmly thank Rolf Loeber and Magda Stouthamer-Loeber for allowing the use of data from the Pittsburgh Youth Study. We further thank Rebecca Stallings for her assistance with the data management.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Bosick, S.J., Gover, A.R. Incarceration During the Transition to Adulthood: A “Snapshot” of At-Risk Males at 25. Am J Crim Just 35, 93–104 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12103-010-9076-0
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12103-010-9076-0