oa Partners in crime? - De invloed van crimineel gedrag op huwelijkskansen en partnerselectie

Partners in crime? The impact of criminal behaviour on marriage formation and partner selection .

Although it is well established that marriage has the potential to foster desistance from crime, little attention has been paid to offenders’ marital chances. The few studies examining the effects of criminal behaviour on marriage formation, have not taken into account the criminal behaviour of spouses. We employ data from the Criminal Career and Life-Course Study (N = 4,615) to examine the marital and criminal careers of both offenders and their marriage partners far into adulthood. The results show that a criminal history is strongly related to outcomes in the marriage market. The higher the number of offenses, the lower the odds of marrying and the higher the odds of marrying a criminal partner.