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The Generality of Deviance
... Recent research also shows that offenders are even more likely to "drunk dial" their friends and to use profanity in public settings (Reisig and Pratt 2011). This is the full picture of offending patterns that led to the notion of the "generality of deviance" (Hirschi and Gottfredson 1994). ...
In this paper we advance the idea that getting arrested amounts to “failing at crime.” And akin to the notion of the generality of deviance—where those who engage in any given form of criminal behavior are also likely to engage in a wide array of other problematic behaviors—we examine whether failing at crime (getting arrested) is associated with other forms of life failure. Using data from multiple waves of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, our results reveal that, independent of one’s level of self-reported criminal behavior and other key potential confounders (IQ and self-control), being arrested is a significant predictor of a host of life failures related to education, employment, relationships, and health. The key implication of our study is that it highlights the need to develop a theory of the “generality of failure.”
The generality of failure theory links arrest – a “failure” at crime – to other failures later on in life such as getting a sexually transmitted disease or losing a job. Yet, this theoretical orientation also suggests the opposite may be true. Early life failures such as failing a class in school and becoming an underage parent may be a marker of an individual likely to fail at crime later in life. We test this theory using eleven waves of data from the Pathways to Desistance survey. Findings demonstrate that both personal failures (e.g., becoming an underage parent, failing a class) and public failures (e.g., being fired from a job, suspended from school) early in life are significantly associated with failing at crime later in life. Results persist even after accounting for a wide range of potential confounding factors such as criminal offending, illicit substance use, IQ, and self-control. Findings highlight the utility of the generality of failure theory in understanding deviant behavior.
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