Author ORCID Identifier

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2241-7101

Date of Award

Spring 1-1-2025

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Criminal Justice

First Advisor

Timothy Brezina

Abstract

In 2019, over three million youth under 18 were under juvenile court jurisdiction in the United States (Puzzanchera & Hockenberry, 2021). Most adolescents engage in minor transgressions, but a small subgroup engages in serious criminal behavior, accounting for an estimated 50% to 70% of overall offending (Mahler et al., 2018). Legal system adjudication is often a negative turning point for these youth, exacerbating existing factors precipitating the initial offending. Understanding and supporting factors to help this unique group of adolescents avoid continued offending is critical for communities, policymakers, and practitioners. While research indicates that holding prosocial expectations for the future can reduce the persistence of antisocial behavior, little research has focused on the sources of these expectations in adolescents following legal system involvement. Guided by life course perspectives and labeling theory, the current study explores parental expectations as a potential source of such expectations following court adjudication. This analysis draws from three waves of data from the Pathways to Desistance study on a diverse sample of youth adjudicated for serious offending (N=932; Mage= 15.96 years, 13.36% female)(Mulvey, 2004). The current study examined youth expectations following formal adjudication focusing on whether parental expectations positively influence their system-involved children’s expectations for future success, whether the children’s expectations predict their subsequent delinquency, and whether the children’s expectations mediate a relationship between parental expectations and future delinquency. Analysis found that parental expectations at adjudication did not predict youth expectations six months later or the likelihood of their offending at twelve months. Instead, youth expectations at six months were positively predicted by the youth’s own expectations immediately after adjudication and negatively associated with their legal cynicism and identification as not White. In the full path model, youth offending at twelve months was predicted by their expectations at six months along with association with delinquent peers among other measures. The results emphasize the malleable nature of future expectations in youth even after system involvement and the dynamic relationship between those expectations and their subsequent offending. These findings reiterate the importance of identifying and fostering positive expectations, with attention paid to addressing negative perceptions of the legal system and understanding how constructs of race negatively affect expectations for conventional measures of adult success.

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