Analyzing the Biosocial Selection into Life-Course Transitions

Over the past 30 years, scholars have increasingly focused on the individual-level factors that explain criminal behavior. This line of research has revealed that myriad factors influence the onset of a criminal career, the maintenance of a criminal career, and the desistance from a criminal career. The current study focused on the factors that account for desistance from a criminal career. One of the most prominent contemporary criminological theories posits that exposure to adult social bonds such as marriage, employment, and military involvement explains why a person desists from crime. Criminological research has supported the theory, but has failed to consider the influence of genetic factors on exposure to adult social bonds and, ultimately, desistance from crime. Three key findings emerged from the analysis. First, genetic factors explained a significant proportion of the variance in nearly all of the adult social bonds analyzed. Second, genetic factors explained a significant proportion of the variance in changes in delinquency, drug use, and antisocial behavior from adolescence to adulthood. Third, once genetic factors were controlled, the explanatory power of an adult social bond on desistance from delinquency was often weakened or eliminated. The theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.