Implicit Criminal Identity and Age: Implications for Criminal Persistence and Desistance:

The present study examines the relations between self-reported explicit criminal identity (ECI) and implicit criminal identity (ICI); that is, the cognitive association between the self-concept and the category of criminal represented in implicit (i.e., nonconscious) memory, and the relation of implicit and explicit identities to age. One hundred six adult participants from the Newark, New Jersey, community participated in the experiment; 39% reported a justice-involvement experience defined as having been arrested, convicted, and/or incarcerated. The experiment was a Justice Involvement (categorical variable) x Age (continuous variable) between-participants design using computer-based reaction time tasks. The findings supported the hypotheses that (a) while both ICI and ECI are related to justice involvement, they are uncorrelated with each other; (b) ICI increases with age; and (c) ECI decreases with age. The findings suggest that implicit social cognitions have promise in explaining persistence and desistance over and above conscious identity-based attitudes and beliefs.