Does Self-esteem Negatively Impact Crime and Delinquency? A Meta-analytic Review of 25 Years of Evidence

Self-esteem has been deemed an important variable in many theories over the past 100 years, and several interventions are aimed at improving self-esteem in order to prevent criminal and delinquent behavior. However, no systematic attempt to quantify the collective results of this variable’s effect on criminal and delinquent behavior has been undertaken, and only one narrative literature review has taken place. This meta-analysis seeks to inform the research by focusing on 48 effect sizes from 42 studies spanning 25 years (1990–2015) and 71,130 individuals. Our findings indicate that self-esteem has a small, negative but significant effect on crime and delinquency.