The interaction between a change in substance use/consequences and a change in moral agency as a mechanism for decreased criminal involvement in low-to-moderate and high-risk youth

The purpose of this study was to determine whether a turning point (change in substance use and substance-related problems) and a cognitive variable (a change in moral agency) interacted to predict recidivism and future offending. Participants were 7,117 (5,640 males, 1,477 females) low-to-moderate-risk justice-involved youth from the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice study and 1,354 (1,170 males and 184 females) high-risk justice-involved youth from the Pathways to Desistance study. The main effects for a change in moral agency and a change in substance use, as well as a change in their interaction, predicted a change in offending. A potentially important inter-study difference surfaced in which the interaction occurred at the promotion end of the bipolar continuum in the low-to-moderate-risk sample (moral agency and absence of substance use/problems), and at the risk end of the bipolar continuum in the high-risk sample (moral neutralization and more social consequences for substance use). It would appear that another way turning points contribute to desistance besides addition/mediation and reciprocity is by interacting with relevant cognitive factors like moral agency.