Does Marriage Inhibit Antisocial Behavior?

Abstract

A particularly provocative set of findings within the antisocial behavior literature concerns the role of marriage in inhibiting these behaviors in adult men. Indeed, there is now convincing evidence that the state of marriage is associated with lower crime rates.^1-4 For example, a recent study² examined within-individual associations between marriage and antisocial behavior in a sample of 475 high-risk boys observed from adolescence through adulthood and found that the average reduction in crime with marriage was approximately 35%, a rather remarkable decrease. Other research found that living with one's wife was negatively associated even with month-to-month variation in crime rates.⁴ In short, the “marriage effect” on desistence from antisocial behavior appears to be a robust one.