Involvement in Crime and Delinquency and the Development of Technological and Computer Skills: A Longitudinal Analysis

• Author: Dzhansarayeva Rima,Saltanat Atakhanova,Gulzhan Mukhamadieva,Yergali Adlet,Kevin M. Beaver
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0306624X211049195
• Published date: 01 February 2023
• Date: 01 February 2023
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0306624X211049195

International Journal of

Offender Therapy and

Comparative Criminology

2023, Vol. 67(2-3) 164 –183

© The Author(s) 2021

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DOI: 10.1177/0306624X211049195

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Article

Involvement in Crime

and Delinquency and

the Development of

Technological and Computer

Skills: A Longitudinal Analysis

Dzhansarayeva Rima1, Saltanat Atakhanova1,

Gulzhan Mukhamadieva1, Yergali Adlet1,

and Kevin M. Beaver2,3

Abstract

A body of research has revealed that involvement in crime and delinquency is

associated with a wide number of social, economic, and health consequences. The

current study built off this knowledge base and examined whether measures of

adolescent violent delinquency and contact with the criminal justice system were

related to the access of basic, and experience with, technology, and computers. To

do so, longitudinal data drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent

to Adult Health (Add Health) were analyzed. The results revealed that self-reported

violent delinquency in adolescence was associated with a decreased probability of

owning a computer and having an email account 10 to 12 years into the future.

Additionally, measures of contact with the criminal justice system, low self-control,

delinquent peers, and governmental public assistance were also associated with the

probability of owning a computer and having an email account.

Keywords

Add Health, adolescence, computers, crime, delinquency, technology

1Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Almaty, Kazakhstan

2Florida State University, Tallahassee, USA

3King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Corresponding Author:

Kevin M. Beaver, College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida State University, 145 Convocation

Way, Tallahassee, FL 32306-1273, USA.

Email: kbeaver@fsu.edu

1049195IJOXXX10.1177/0306624X211049195International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative CriminologyRima et al.

research-article2021

Rima et al. 165

Criminological research has historically focused on the causes of antisocial behavior,

including crime, delinquency, and other forms of illegal conduct (e.g., Akers, 1998;

Gottfredson & Hirschi, 1990; Hirschi, 1969; Merton, 1938). While certainly there has

always been interest in understanding the consequences of engaging in crime and

delinquency, it has only been relatively recently where there has been a widespread

and systematic effort to more fully understand the broad swath of disadvantages that

result directly from criminal involvement. Recent research, for example, has examined

the potential connection between criminality/crime and health outcomes (Beaver

et al., 2014; Miller et al., 2011; Piquero et al., 2007), social bonds (Barnes et al., 2014;

King & South, 2011; Wright et al., 1999), as well as educational achievement

(Blomberg et al., 2011). The results generated from these studies have converged to

show that adolescent delinquent involvement, adult criminal behavior, and criminality

in general are associated with a broad range of negative outcomes across a litany of

life domains (Mercer et al., 2016; Moffitt et al., 2011; Wright et al., 1999). Although

much knowledge has accrued about the disadvantages emanating from antisocial con-

duct as a result of this line of research, there still remains much that is unknown about

how criminal involvement might be tied to other disadvantages.

One area, in particular, that has not received research attention is the role that

adolescent delinquency might play in affecting the development and accrual of

requisite skills needed to navigate everyday life and compete on the job market. In

today’s technologically based society, even basic computer skills and rudimentary

knowledge of technology are necessary to function at a low-level. Whether crime

and delinquency impede the acquisition of such skills, however, remains an open-

empirical question. Against this backdrop, we examined whether involvement in

adolescent delinquency and early adulthood crime was associated with owning a

computer and having an email account in adulthood. To do so, we analyzed data

drawn from a nationally representative sample of youth who were adolescents in

the 1990s.

Crime, Delinquency, and Disadvantage

Etiological research on crime and delinquency has tended to focus on whether social

institutions, such as the family and schools, might be involved in the development of

offending behaviors (Akers, 1998; Gottfredson & Hirschi, 1990; Harris, 1998; Hirschi,

1969; Patterson, 1982). Findings from such studies have consistently revealed that a

complex arrangement of such influences are involved in the creation of adolescent

delinquency and adult criminal behavior (Farrington, 2000; Hirschi, 1969; Sampson &

Laub, 1993; Thornberry, 1987; Wachs, 2000). Extending this body of scholarship, life-

course and developmental criminological research has shown that changes in some of

the same institutions that have been tied to criminal involvement are also connected to

why certain offenders move away from an antisocial lifestyle and toward a prosocial

one (Laub & Sampson, 2003; Sampson & Laub, 1993). To illustrate, criminal offend-

ers who marry a prosocial spouse are significantly more likely to desist from crime

than are those who remain single (Laub et al., 1998; Maume et al., 2005; Sampson &