Examining the factors that lead to being arrested among criminal abstainers: An analysis of potential sources of bias in the American criminal justice system

Abstract To date, there has been no research examining the factors that might lead to being arrested for self-reported criminal abstainers—that is, persons who report that they have refrained from engaging in crime. The current study addressed this gap in the literature and examined whether certain factors were associated with being arrested among a sample of self-reported criminal abstainers. Results generated from binary logistic regression equations of data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Ns ranging from 404 to 3567) revealed that arrests were based, in part, on race, sex, and intelligence level. Specifically, African Americans, males, and abstainers who scored lower on intelligence tests were all significantly more likely to be arrested than were Caucasians, females, and abstainers who scored higher on intelligence tests. We conclude by discussing the practical and methodological implications of the study as well as directions for future research.