Mens & Maatschappij - Volume 85, Issue 2, 2010

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.

Philosophies of life and Health Care Utilization in the Netherlands .

This study investigates to what extent people’s religious denomination relates to health care utilization. Religious denomination is seen as an indicator of a philosophy of life. We distinguish between Christian and Islamic religious and post-modern philosophies of life. Given that modern medical science and ensuing health care interventions are widely accepted, we do not expect a relationship between philosophies of life and the utilization of regular sources of modern health care. However, we do expect differences in areas where more controversy is possible, especially complementary and alternative medicine, but also preventive medicine. As expected, our results show philosophy of life differences in utilization for complementary and alternative medicine.

Social trust in the European context .

A multi-level analysis of 18 countries .

This study investigates to what extent differences between European countries in the level of social trust may be explained by compositional and contextual factors. Hypotheses were derived with respect to socioeconomic success, social engagement, social distance and religiosity. A multi-level analysis performed on 24,203 respondents from 18 countries in the 2002 European Social Survey shows that people express more social trust if they are socioeconomically more successful, are active participants in social organizations, experience little social distance, and are religious. In addition, a society’s context shapes social trust; people living in countries with high levels of social engagement, with low levels of ethnic fragmentation and with a large percentage of religious people show more social trust.

Where do partners meet? Social differentiation in meeting places .

Meeting places form a vital link in the process of partner choice, in which preferences, norms and opportunities to meet partners play a role. Using the ‘Onderzoek Gezinsvorming’ 2003, we find that the partner market is segmented by relationship career, education, age, religion and geography. Public places are popular among youngsters, the lower educated, Catholics and the rural population. Socalled ‘closed’ places are meeting places for the higher educated, partners in the repartnering market, young adults, the re-reformed and city dwellers. Those meeting in private settings tend to have a lower level of education, to be Muslim and to have grown up abroad.