THE REVIEW IN THIS EDITION IS….
Giordano, Peggy C. 2010. Legacies of Crime: A Follow-Up of the Children of Highly Delinquent Girls and Boys. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Reviewer: Rebecca Sanchez, Rutgers University
Legacies of crime do exist, according to Peggy C. Giordano, a renowned research professor at Bowling Green State University. Her recently published book, Legacies of Crime, looks at the intergenerational transmission of crime and related problem outcomes. Her study makes a significant contribution by bringing a social learning perspective to life course criminology and focusing, not only on crime, but gender as well. The author’s objective is to examine whether and how parents’ criminal or deviant behaviors are passed down to their children. She found, through a unique longitudinal study, that the majority of children learned behaviors from their parents, both favorable and unfavorable.
The author began her investigation with the Ohio Life-Course Study in 1982, interviewing delinquent teenagers who were sixteen years of age, on average. Follow-up interviews were completed in 1995 to see how these individuals were managing their lives as adults, facing economic and social disadvantages, and sometimes continued criminality. Giordano then went a step further and performed a second follow-up in 2003. She interviewed not only the same adults, but their children as well.
A significant contribution of Giordano’s research is her compelling addition of social learning to the life course perspective in criminology. Life course criminology has typically utilized the social control perspective, examining what is absent within a person’s life such as proper supervision or attachment. Giordano believes that it is not enough to just look at forms of social control. The social learning perspective provides additional insight into the life course through its focus on learned behaviors and definitions. The children in this study learned to become delinquent both directly and indirectly from their parents, illustrating the existence of crime legacies.
Throughout the book, excerpts by respondents are utilized, which allows for a better understanding of the key concepts. In the introductory chapter, Giordano begins by introducing one of the respondents and part of his story. Including individuals and their stories gives her research a personal feel. As I read, I felt drawn into the lives of these respondents and tried imagining life as they knew and experienced it. Giordano’s research goes in-depth into her respondents’ life histories. In doing so, she demonstrates that there are subtle influences within the family context that cause an individual to learn certain definitions and behaviors, whether favorable or not.
Past literature and the conceptual framework of the current study are examined in depth in chapter two. Giordano looks at parental criminality as a powerful risk factor in child delinquency. She includes an overview of the conceptual limitations of social control perspectives in life course criminology and discusses the need for prospective and longitudinal research. In addition, she includes a detailed discussion of the literature on gender and crime. Giordano’s study contains more women than men, allowing her to examine the causes of female criminality and the gendered realities of women’s life experiences. Gender is significant in this work because readers are able to see how the women got to where they are, and the obstacles they faced. This study addresses a gap in literature because it contains both qualitative and quantitative data about a group of delinquent parents whose actions have often continued, therefore influencing their children.
Giordano expands criminological theorizing on social learning by utilizing the concepts of self and identity, agency, and emotion. These three concepts play a large role in the lives of the children because they impact how a child grows up, including in response to his or her deviant parents. Identity, agency, and emotionality are all crucial for understanding crime across the life course. Children at a young age form their identities and learn definitions of behavior from their parents. If parents display negative behaviors, their children will likely replicate those actions. Family circumstances can cause angry emotions, which can also lead to delinquency. All three of these concepts are social in nature, and are influenced by learning and interacting with parents on a daily basis.
In chapter three, the Ohio Life-Course Study is explored in detail, from the first set of interviews to the last follow-up. The original interviews were structured and held in juvenile facilities. The first follow-up with the respondents explored how they were doing as adults, and determined continuity and change in criminal behavior. The second follow-up focused on parenting practices and child outcomes. Giordano noted that the in-depth and unstructured interviews from the first and second follow-up provided more information than the structured interviews originally performed. In the book, however, she was able to bring all three together—along with comparative data from the Toledo Young Adult Survey—to provide a compelling picture of intergenerational dynamics that contribute to legacies of crime.
Chapter four is about the adult respondents and examines criminal persistence and desistance among the study participants as they entered into adulthood. Giordano found that there was an overall decline of crime from adolescence to adulthood, but no decline from the first and second interview follow-ups. The persistence of crime was strongly associated with drugs and alcohol use, high risk environments, and exposure to violence. Many of the respondents did not graduate from high school, had low incomes, and were involved in conflictual relationships. When it came to their children, the majority of the respondents emphasized the importance of being a good parent. At the same time, however, they also tended to view good parenting as “a kind of disaster avoidance strategy” (p. 89) and were less involved than respondents in the Toledo study in their children’s school and extracurricular activities.
The children of the original respondents, the focus of chapter five, faced numerous difficulties. The entire sample was plagued by residential instability, poor school attendance and performance, lack of parental basics, drug involvement, and violent behavior. Although there was a common desire to avoid repeating their parents’ problems, many did participate in delinquent acts such as running away or doing drugs. To demonstrate the transmission of crime from parents to children, Giordano uses the example of one family with eight children. The mother continued her drug involvement and exhibited violent behavior. All of the children faced emotional difficulties and often acted out. They had anger problems, fought other kids, were bullies, stole things, or were suspended from school. This illustrates the importance of positive role models and the effects that parental deviance can have on children.
In chapter six, Giordano mentions several theories regarding the intergenerational transmission process, but again focuses primarily on the social learning aspect of it. She found that delinquency was learned both directly and indirectly from parents. Fighting, for example, was often learned directly because parents wanted their children to stand up for and defend themselves. Drug and alcohol use was more commonly learned indirectly because the children saw their parents doing such actions as ways to cope with life and stress. As mentioned throughout the book, emotions are important in understanding the transmission process. Negative life circumstances lead to angry reactions, such as acting out and behaving violently. Underage drinking and drug use were adopted as coping mechanisms by youth to deal with family stressors such as the incarceration of a parent. Importantly, Giordano reveals that children reported as much or more stress when drug-using parents were not incarcerated, while incarceration itself often meant the child at least knew his or her parent was safe.
Although legacies of crime do exist, Giordano also examined success stories in which some children manage to “make it” and avoid replicating the patterns of their parents. These are examined in chapter seven. These success stories are few, but Giordano argues that it is important to address the positive influences that some of the children had in their lives which counterbalanced their exposure to parental deviance. Some of the positive factors that she describes are becoming a caretaker of other siblings, spirituality and religious involvement, having long-term goals, and simply distancing away from negative actions. Ultimately, though, the children interviewed had difficult times developing identities opposite from their parents because life in disadvantaged neighborhoods limited positive outcomes.
The final chapter in the book discusses the need for a broader approach in studying the children of incarcerated parents. Other difficulties need to be looked at as well as the subjective experiences of those children. Social learning perspectives must target family life in order to fully understand the intergenerational transmission of crime. Giordano mentions gender in the final chapter when talking about new approaches. She states the importance of services to women with early problem and delinquent backgrounds because the well-being and safety of their children are at risk. She emphasizes gender because mothers remain the majority of caregivers and thus tend to have the greatest influence on intergenerational transmission patterns.
In summary, it is critically important to examine the lives of formerly delinquent adults and their children to understand whether and how behaviors are passed down across generations. Giordano’s Legacies of Crime is a rich, longitudinal study that does just that. Giordano stresses social learning, not just social control, because what children see growing up will often influence their decisions. The stigma of having criminal parents is significant in identity formation. Children of delinquent parents experience negativities all throughout life. They learn how to cope and deal with emotions, which, Giordano demonstrates, matter profoundly. Giordano looks at gender in a broad context, but points out a range of risk factors that can contribute to girls’ delinquency. Legacies of Crime is an important book for those interested in the causes of crime, as well as those interested in gender, and is recommended due to its rich data and unique research approach.