The role of marriage has been extensively studied for its positive impacts on male desistance. However, the role of romantic partners for women is less understood. Do partners exert a prosocial “protective” effect or are they criminogenic? The present study empirically drills down on this question. Specifically, we assess the character and quality of romantic relationships on substance use and illegitimate income using a sample of incarcerated women. Drawing from social control, social learning, and strain theory, we hypothesize that the effects of both being in and breaking up from a relationship on illicit behavior are conditional on the quality of the relationship and behavior/characteristics of the partner. Using data from the Women’s Experience of Violence (WEV) project, consisting of a custodial sample of criminal justice-involved women (N = 770), we examine how relationship status and quality, as well as partner offending, influence drug use and illicit earnings. A series of multi-level random effects models are estimated to explore how within-person changes in relationship/breakup status are related to changes in the two dependent variables. Contrary to expectations, we find that romantic dissolution (of either a high- or low-quality relationship) does not negatively impact this sample of women and that being in a high-quality relationship is not a protective factor, as has been found often in male samples. Findings suggest partner behavior may be more important than the quality of the relationship with the partner. Our results link drug use and participation in the illicit economy to factors mostly outside of a woman’s relationship status and quality, thereby challenging some commonly understood mechanisms of desistance.

由于婚姻对男性戒欲的积极影响，人们对其进行了广泛的研究。然而，浪漫伴侣对女性的作用却鲜为人知。伴侣是否发挥了亲社会的“保护”作用，或者它们具有致犯罪性？本研究从经验上深入探讨了这个问题。具体来说，我们使用被监禁的女性样本评估恋爱关系在吸毒和非法收入方面的特征和质量。从社会控制，社会学习和应变理论的角度出发，我们假设，处于一种关系中和从一种关系中破裂对非法行为的影响取决于关系的质量以及伴侣的行为/特征。使用妇女暴力经历项目（WEV）的数据，其中包括与刑事司法有关的妇女的保管样本（N  = 770），我们研究了关系状况和质量以及伴侣的犯罪行为如何影响药物使用和非法收入。估计了一系列多级随机效应模型，以探索人际关系/分手状态的变化如何与两个因变量的变化相关。与期望相反，我们发现浪漫的解散（无论是高品质还是低品质的关系）都不会对这名女性样本产生负面影响，而且保持高品质的关系并不是保护因素，正如经常在男性样本。调查结果表明伴侣的行为可能比与伴侣的关系质量更重要。我们的研究结果将毒品的使用和参与非法经济与大多数妇女的关系状况和素质之外的因素联系在一起，从而挑战了一些普遍理解的戒断机制。