| Objective: Desistance from crime has become a popular topic in criminological research in recent years, and numerous studies have explored the complex manifestations, theoretical insights, and social influences of change. Although a number of social experiences have been empirically or theoretically connected to the concept of desistance, including marriage, parenthood, employment, military service, and religion, the findings supporting these relationships are not necessarily universal, such as studies addressing the employment effect, and results often vary within demographic contexts and differ through historic periods.;Methods: To address this gap I undertook a series of meta-analytic reviews of the research examining the desistance effect of marriage, parenthood, employment, military service, and religion. Domains of desistance included defining behavior as officially recorded crime versus self-reported behavior, reduction versus termination of offending, and specifying within- versus between-individual results. Using meta-regression analyses* I assessed the general impact of these social experiences changing behavior, as well as interactions by percent male, percent white, and time frame of data collection.;Results: The results provide general support for the effect of each social event, albeit with some inconsistent findings influenced by data limitations. The marriage effect was the most frequently studied of all social influences, with findings generally supporting desistance through marriage in different contexts, and establishing a race specific aspect of the marriage effect for white offenders and a strengthening of the marriage effect for males in between-individual studies, possibly reflecting a selection effect complication, of reduction in official crime. Marriage results also suggest a weakening of the effect in more recent timeframes, specifically where data was collected after 1980 and 1990, in contexts measuring between-subject effects. Parenthood studies also provide support for the desistance effect, suggest a race specific effect against white offenders and a gender specific effect against men, and reveal similar temporal discrepancies when studying parenthood between subjects. The desistance effect of employment, like marriage, provides a stronger source of change for white and male offenders. Similar findings emerge when examining military service and religion as sources of change, but these contexts produced the fewest amount of studies for analysis.;Conclusion: Desistance from crime and general offending is an important aspect of criminological inquiry, and it is influenced by a number of external social experiences. The impact of each specified social event is influenced by different desistance contexts, aspects of race and gender, and changes in cultural values and social practices observed through time. The rise in cohabitation instead of marriage, delays in parenthood, complex changes in economic landscapes, alterations in military recruitment efforts, and reductions in religious involvement have all influenced the impact of desistance from criminal conduct. This study contributes to desistance research by demonstrating specific influences of gender, race, and temporal influence on social experiences related to changing behavior, and offers new opportunities for life course research. |
