Marriage and crime

[Ramrod]

From todays Times:
January 14, 2004

Make marriage not crime
Mary Ann Sieghart
The world's longest study of criminals has come up with an astonishing answer to the problem of delinquent young men



WHAT IS IT that turns young, male delinquents away from a life of crime? The question has long puzzled policymakers. They have tried prison and cognitive therapy and anger management; all to little effect. Now an American academic has come up with the definitive answer: marriage.
John H. Laub, an eminent criminologist from the University of Maryland, is giving what promises to be a fascinating lecture tomorrow at the Royal Institution. It coincides with the publication of his book, based on research into the lives of 500 criminals who were in reform school in the 1930s and 1940s. Now they are in their seventies, and Laub has reinterviewed a cross-section of them to find out what in their lives, if anything, made them turn their back on crime.



This is thought to be the longest longitudinal study of crime in the world. More than half a century after it began, Laub gives us a riveting insight into the turning points in a man’s life. He identifies three factors that entice men back into law- abiding society: a steady job, a successful spell in the Armed Forces and marriage. But the greatest of these is marriage.

Here is Leon, for instance. Brought up with nine brothers and sisters and two alcoholic parents, he was neglected as a child, started truanting at seven and was first arrested at 11. He burgled and looted, eventually ending up in reform school.

Now 70, he is a homeowner who worked as a doughnut shop manager for 30 years and a lab technician for 12. He spends his retirement travelling around America and Europe with his wife of 49 years. According to Leon, “My wife straightened me out. If I hadn’t met my wife at the time I did, I’d probably be dead. It just changed my whole life . . . that’s my turning point right there.�

Domenic agrees: “Oh, sure. My biggest turning point is when I met my wife.� Stanley says, with pride: “I gave up drinking after I got married.� And William is clear, too: “The thing that changed me was marriage.�

The evidence is not just anecdotal. Laub found that those offenders who gave up crime were, statistically, more likely to be in stable marriages. Those who persisted were more likely to be never married, divorced or serially married. His calculations show a 36 per cent reduction in crime associated with being married.

So what is it about this institution that turns men straight? First, it is an investment. Married men have more to lose than single men. It also takes men away from their peers: married couples tend to spend more time with each other and with the wife’s friends. Often marriage also entails moving house, taking the man out of the environment that got him into trouble.

Wives themselves can exert what Laub calls “informal social control� over their husbands, issuing ultimatums about giving up crime. And the state of marriage can change men’s sense of self, making them feel more adult and responsible. Finally, getting hitched almost always involves, for criminal men, “marrying up�. After all, women are, statistically, much less likely to be criminal than men. As Laub writes: “For this reason alone it is little wonder that marriage, to virtually any woman, could benefit (delinquent) men.�

Yet these men, born in the 1920s and 1930s, grew up in a very different climate. Marriage was the norm. Divorce was difficult. Cohabitation was virtually unknown. Even a young delinquent would have found it hard to father several babies with different women and neither marry nor live with any of them � which is the norm in some parts of society today.

In those days, marriage conferred respectability. It was a formal passage into adulthood. It provided a stable structure for people who had often experienced chaotic lives. Marriage was seen as synonymous with “settling down�.

That’s a phrase we hardly ever use today. Too many twenty, and even thirtysomethings, particularly men, seem stuck in a perpetual adolescence, in which commitment and permanence are seen as threats or traps rather than symbols of love and security. They fail to see that they are living in a trap of their own. They are trapped in a stage of life that they ought to have outgrown. It is a stage that may deliver more instant gratification but far less long-term happiness.

For the benefits of a strong marriage are huge. To share your life with someone you can trust to support you and stand by you is a wonderful feeling. To know that, should you be unlucky enough to be paralysed by a car crash, there will be someone who loves you enough to care for you afterwards is a privilege beyond price.

In that way, marriage is different from cohabitation. “For better and for worse� is the key. Cohabitees are happy to stay in a relationship for as long as they are happy. Married couples are more likely to try to work their way through periods of adversity. Criminological studies show that though marriage reduces crime, cohabitation actually seems to increase it.

As Waite and Gallagher, in another American study, write: “Marriage actually changes people’s goals and behaviour in ways that are profoundly and powerfully life enhancing.� That is particularly true for those with damaged backgrounds. “Marriage makes people better off in part because it constrains them from certain kinds of behaviour which, while perhaps immediately attractive (ie, staying up all night drinking beer, or cheating on your partner) do not pay off in the long run.�

So what can policymakers do with this knowledge? Well, they can’t force offenders to get married. But they could make criminals more aware of the benefits of marriage � not just the financial and legal advantages, but the life-changing ones, too. And they could put more money into services that help offenders to maintain their relationships while they are in jail and after they are let out.

In the long run, it would prove a lot cheaper than policing, probation and locking men up. It would make the men happier and society safer. And it’s a solution so charming that it could be made into a Richard Curtis film. Who’d have thought that the answer to a dry Home Office question would be: “The love of a good woman, actually.�?

[Jon M]

that could be extended.. marriage and family values are the backbone of healthy society.. yet.. they are two of the most bombarded (negatively) areas of life.. by the media, government and the well meaning, but often mis-guided, politically correct mob.

[iadom]

Compulsory marriage, perhaps with state funding, now don't go giving this crackpot government any ideas . Still trying to get my head round surcharges on speeding fines to pay for criminal injuries.

[Ramrod]

I thought that the bit about cohabiting actually increasing the likelihood of criminal behavior was interesting.

[Nemesis]

Sorry .. Misread title as "Marriage is a crime" LOL

/* Steps away from thread

[Russ B]

I have to say I was a bit of a boy racser when I was younger but always drove sensibly if I had a girlfriend in the car so I can see where this is coming from.

But saying that, the BIGGEST turning point in a man's life has to be when his first child is born, amen to that!

[Ramrod]

Originally Posted by Russ D

But saying that, the BIGGEST turning point in a man's life has to be when his first child is born, amen to that!

...and with two (or more) children, you haven't got time for crime

[Paul M]

I have three, I don't have time to breathe ....

[Ramrod]

Originally Posted by pem

I have three, I don't have time to breathe ....

...but at least the kids and wife are stopping you committing crimes

[Maggy J]

Bah!

So what are the benefits for women?

Do women who are delinquent get turned around by marriage?

I can just see all those delinquents lining up to get married but all the women are wondering what's the point of getting married?

Sorry I'm rather cynical at the moment.After all I spend 2 hours of my working days taking and fetching hubby to and from work and when I suggest it might be nice if he caught the bus for one morning because I'm knackered he refuses because it's fecking raining.
I think I'm going to be too knackered to cook tomorrow evening

Incog.

[downquark1]

Well, this story throws the theory out the window
http://www.foxnews.com/video2/player...ed&acc&wvx-300

hey were a group of 14 elderly men and women, mostly in their 70s. They certainly didn't look like desperadoes.






But this*cozy group of cane-clutching retirees wasn't as innocent as it seemed.


Police say the group hanging out in San Francisco's downtown Hallidie Plaza was*receiving stolen goods from professional shoplifters, then returning the items to stores at a tidy profit.


"The items still have the price tags on them, so they go back to the stores and say, 'I can't find my receipt, but I just bought these, I'd like to turn them back in,'" explained Lt. Tom Buckley of the SFPD. "Most of the stores downtown, especially with elderly people like these, they'll say, 'OK, sure.'"


Instead of tossing the old folks in the slammer, police took fingerprints and mug shots and issued a warning: Any more trouble with the law, even a misdemeanor, and they'd face charges that could put them away for the rest of their lives.


"We didn't have our guns out. ... One man had to turn up his oxygen machine and get more air because he was so stressed," Inspector Bob Rogers told the San Francisco Examiner. "He kept saying, 'I'm sorry, I'm sorry,' and apologizing.

[Maggy J]

Originally Posted by downquark1

Well, this story throws the theory out the window
http://www.foxnews.com/video2/player...ed&acc&wvx-300

[downquark1]

Originally Posted by Incognitas

Sorry incog there is an advert first, you can skip it with the controls

[Ramrod]

Originally Posted by Incognitas

Bah!

So what are the benefits for women?

Do women who are delinquent get turned around by marriage?

<snip>I think I'm going to be too knackered to cook tomorrow evening

Incog.

.......so I suppose sex is out of the question then?

[Maggy J]

Originally Posted by Ramrod

.......so I suppose sex is out of the question then?