The Relationship Between Self-Esteem, Gender, Criminal Attitudes, and Recidivism in a Youth Justice Sample

• Published in: Criminal justice and behavior 2021-04, Vol.48 (4), p.539-555
• Main Authors: Thapa, Shreena, Brown, Shelley L., Skilling, Tracey A.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Attitudes; Gender; Gender differences; Juvenile justice; Juvenile offenders; Males; Prioritizing; Recidivism; Self esteem; Youth
• ISSN: 0093-8548; 1552-3594
• DOI: 10.1177/0093854820977577

The Risk-Need-Responsivity (RNR) model deems criminal attitudes a high-priority criminogenic target for both genders while self-esteem is considered noncriminogenic, hence low priority. In contrast, self-esteem is afforded greater priority among gender-responsive researchers, while the construct of criminal attitudes is afforded lesser priority. We examined whether self-esteem and gender moderated the relationship between criminal attitudes and recidivism among 300 justice-involved youth (200 males, 100 females). Contrary to the hypothesis, high self-esteem (≥72.15th percentile) magnified the relationship between criminal attitudes (Pride in Delinquency Scale) and recidivism in females only; self-esteem levels evidenced no impact on the relationship between criminal attitudes and recidivism among males. Results suggest that prioritizing self-esteem as a treatment target among justice-involved female youth without simultaneously considering whether or not pride in criminal conduct is also present may inadvertently increase reoffending. Implications for exploring whether high self-esteem may in reality represent falsely inflated self-esteem are discussed.