An examination of sibling impact on frequency and type of arrest among chronic offenders

Abstract

Siblings begin interacting with each other in early childhood and often continue to interact on a consistent basis throughout the life-course. Little research has been done on how these sibling relationships impact the development of criminal behaviors separate from parents' influence and direction. Using the California Youth Authority data, this study explores the impact of siblings on chronic offenders' number of arrests and offense type. Overall, the main findings support that siblings do matter in offending behaviors. A few significant relationships were found regarding siblings and chronic offenders, including: 1) Greater numbers of sibling arrests are associated with significantly more arrests for the offender, and 2) the number of siblings an offender has results in a significantly lower rate of total arrests for the offender. The results of this study, their implications for future research on sibling relationships and criminality, and the impact on recidivism are discussed.