Abstract

Adolescence is a vulnerable period of individual development when decision-making is easily compromised, and criminal involvement reaches its peak. We draw on and extend novel decision-making perspectives and use the first two waves of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (N = 13,399) to analyze whether factors representing adverse physical conditions, negative mental states, and stressful social circumstances condition the effect of thoughtfully reflective decision-making (TRDM) on adolescent delinquent behavior. We find that experiencing various “hot triggers” such as sleep problems, depression, and straining conditions significantly reduces the crime-preventive impact of TRDM (an example of cool processing) among adolescents. We outline potential avenues for further theoretical development of integrated frameworks of decision-making and crime and discuss policy implications aimed at ways to deal with the adverse social, emotional, and physical triggers and foster thoughtful decision-making skills among adolescents.

摘要

青春期是个人发展的一个脆弱时期，此时决策很容易受到影响，犯罪卷入达到顶峰。我们借鉴并扩展了新颖的决策视角，并使用了全国青少年到成人健康纵向研究 ( N = 13,399) 来分析代表不利身体状况、消极心理状态和压力社会环境的因素是否会影响深思熟虑的反思决策 (TRDM) 对青少年犯罪行为的影响。我们发现，经历各种“热触发”，例如睡眠问题、抑郁和紧张状况，会显着降低 TRDM（冷处理的一个例子）对青少年的犯罪预防影响。我们概述了决策和犯罪综合框架的进一步理论发展的潜在途径，并讨论了旨在应对不利的社会、情感和身体触发因素以及培养青少年深思熟虑的决策技能的政策含义。