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The Longitudinal Relations Between Religiosity, Moral Disengagement, and Offending in Serious Adolescent Offenders THE LONGITUDINAL RELATIONS BETWEEN RELIGIOSITY, MORAL DISENGAGEMENT, AND OFFENDING IN SERIOUS ADOLESCENT OFFENDERS by Stephanie Michelle Cardwell APPROVED BY SUPERVISORY COMMITTEE: ___________________________________________ Alex R. Piquero, PhD, Chair ___________________________________________ Bruce A. Jacobs, PhD ___________________________________________ Nicole Leeper Piquero, PhD ___________________________________________ Lynne M. Vieraitis, PhD Copyright 2017 Stephanie Michelle Cardwell All Rights Reserved This is for Papa Joe. Though not here in the present, you are always in my heart. I love you. THE LONGITUDINAL RELATIONS BETWEEN RELIGIOSITY, MORAL DISENGAGEMENT, AND OFFENDING IN SERIOUS ADOLESCENT OFENDERS by STEPHANIE MICHELLE CARDWELL, BS, MSCJ DISSERTATION Presented to the Faculty of The University of Texas at Dallas in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN CRIMINOLOGY THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT DALLAS May 2017 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS There are many people to whom I owe much thanks, for without them I would not have had the motivation to complete my PhD. First, I thank my dissertation committee. I could not have asked for a better one. To my chair, Dr. Alex Piquero, thank you for providing exceptional mentorship over the past four years. Your enthusiasm, work ethic, and passion for criminology are truly inspiring. To my committee members, Drs. Lynne Vieraitis, Nicole Piquero, and Bruce Jacobs, thank you all for your feedback on this dissertation and for your guidance and encouragement during my time at UTD. Secondly, I thank the faculty at UTD and UAB. Thank you Dr. Heith Copes for your encouragement over the past six years. Additionally, thank you to Drs. Kent Kerley, Tomislav Kovandzic, Sylvie Mrug, Nadine Connell, Suzanne Perumean-Chaney, and Archandria Owens for providing help and support. Thirdly, I thank my family and friends. To my family, Dennis, Nancy, Julie, and Shauna, thank you for your love. To my friends, Haley, Neal, Vinetra, Michele, Jessica, and Stephanie, thank you for always being there. To Gabe, thank you for being an understanding and patient partner and for your love. And to my mom Lucie Cardwell, thank you for being the best thing that has ever happened to me. Cheers, to you all! March 2017 v THE LONGITUDINAL RELATIONS BETWEEN RELIGIOSITY, MORAL DISENGAGEMENT, AND OFFENDING IN SERIOUS ADOLESCENT OFENDERS Stephanie Michelle Cardwell, PhD The University of Texas at Dallas, 2017 Supervising Professor: Alex R. Piquero, PhD Much prior research has found that religiosity is negatively related to crime. Still, less is known about the mechanisms that govern this relationship, especially among offending populations. One theory that can offer more insight into the religiosity—crime nexus is moral disengagement (MD). No research has addressed how the theory can explain the relationship between religiosity and crime. Additionally, less is known about how these relationships change over time. In order to address these topics data from the Pathways to Desistance study was utilized. Religiosity, as measured by the importance of religion and religious service attendance, decreased slightly throughout the study. Both of these measures were also predictive of lower levels of MD over time. Higher religious service attendance at baseline was associated with higher levels of self- reported offending over time while the importance of religion was related to lower self-reported offending over time. Religiosity was protective of self-reported offending longitudinally among male but not female respondents. Finally, MD partly mediated the relationship between vi religiosity and self-reported offending throughout most of the study. Overall, these results indicate that religion plays a role in the lives of the serious adolescent offenders in the study. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...............................................................................................................v ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................... vi LIST OF FIGURES .........................................................................................................................x LIST OF TABLES ......................................................................................................................... xi CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION .....................................................................................................1 CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW ..........................................................................................7 Early Research on Religiosity and Crime and Delinquency (1969 – 2000) ........................7 Recent Research on Religiosity and Crime and Delinquency (2001 – Present) ................14 The Longitudinal Relations between Religiosity and Crime and Delinquency .................21 The Moderating Effects of Demographics .........................................................................24 Research on Religiosity among Offenders ........................................................................29 The Relationship between Religiosity and Moral Disengagement ....................................33 Current Study .....................................................................................................................38 Hypotheses .........................................................................................................................39 CHAPTER 3 DATA AND METHODS ........................................................................................43 Data ....................................................................................................................................43 Data Collection ..................................................................................................................43 Dependent Variables ..........................................................................................................45 Independent Variables .......................................................................................................48 Controls ..............................................................................................................................49 Analytical Plan ...................................................................................................................53 CHAPTER 4 RESULTS ................................................................................................................57 CHAPTER 5 DISCUSSION ..........................................................................................................77 Theoretical Implications ....................................................................................................82 Policy Implications ............................................................................................................86 Limitations and Future Directions .....................................................................................89 Conclusions ........................................................................................................................91 APPENDIX A BIVARIATE CORRELATIONS AT BASELINE ...............................................93 viii APPENDIX B IRB APPROVAL ..................................................................................................94 REFERENCES ..............................................................................................................................95 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH .......................................................................................................105 CURRICULUM VITAE ix LIST OF FIGURES 4.1 Mean Levels of Importance of Religion Over Time ...................................................................57 4.2 Mean Levels of Importance of Religion Over Time: Stratified by Sex ......................................58 4.3 Mean Levels of Importance of Religion Over Time: Stratified by Race/Ethnicity ....................58 4.4 Mean Levels of Religious Service Attendance Over Time ........................................................61 4.5 Mean Levels of Religious Service Attendance Over Time: Stratified by Sex ...........................61 4.6 Mean Levels of Religious Service Attendance Over Time: Stratified by Race/Ethnicity ..........62 4.7 Mean Levels of Moral Disengagement Over Time ....................................................................65 4.8 Mean Levels of Self-reported Offending Over Time .................................................................67 x LIST OF TABLES 3.1 Descriptive Statistics for the Study Measured at Baseline .....................................................53 4.2 Multilevel Mixed-effects Linear Regression Predicting Longitudinal Change in the Importance of Religion ...........................................................................................................60 4.3 Multilevel Mixed-effects Ordered Logistic Regression Predicting Longitudinal Change in Religious Service Attendance .................................................................................................63 4.4 Multilevel Mixed-effects Linear Regression Predicting Longitudinal Change in Moral Disengagement .......................................................................................................................66 4.5 Multilevel Mixed-effects Negative Binomial Regression Predicting Longitudinal Change in Self-reported
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