Moral disengagement and serious juvenile crime: A meta-analysis about its relationship

Abstract

Several researches have focused on analysing the links between moral disengagement and illegal behaviours in young population showing different results. The main aim of this review was to estimate the relationship between moral disengagement and juvenile delinquency, as well as to analyse the influence of certain moderating variables. A random effects model was used in the meta-analytic review in order to settle the average effect magnitude and obtain the moderating effects of demographic and methodological variables. A total of 20 independent studies were obtained involving 10061 youths. Moral disengagement has been found to be associated with juvenile delinquency (r = .35, p < .001). Concurrently, the effect magnitude increases as it does the seriousness of the crime (r = .45, p < .001) which settles the type of crime as a significant moderator. In conclusion, moral disengagement and severe juvenile crime share a powerful relationship, which stablishes the moral disengagement as a relevant risk factor for the juvenile delinquency. This result suggests that the moral dimension is a key factor to take into account in the design of future research, as well as accomplishing prevention and intervention strategies for different types of crime.