Does Helping Promote Well-Being Among At-Risk Youth and Adult Ex-Offenders?

What is it about?

Numerous theories attempt to explain humans’ extraordinary prosociality, but predictions are rarely tested among antisocial individuals, whose dampened concern for others offers a particularly strong test of generalizability for prosocial action. To build upon past research demonstrating the emotional benefits of prosociality among non-offending populations and broaden our understanding of how far this relationship may extend, we examined whether the emotional benefits of prosocial spending are detectable in samples of delinquent youth and criminal offenders reporting elevated antisocial tendencies and psychopathic personality features. Findings support the notion that emotional rewards are detectable among these populations: Ex-offenders and delinquent youth reported significantly greater feelings of well-being after recalling or engaging in charitable behavior than after recalling or engaging in self-directed action. These findings demonstrate the hedonic benefits generous action in a new and theoretically relevant population and also provide a humanizing perspective for stigmatized antisocial populations.

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Why is it important?

The present work offers important practical implications for forensic psychology and the criminal justice system. Converging evidence from four experiments spanning both adult and juvenile populations suggests that ex-offenders and individuals with criminal, antisocial, and selfish tendencies experience emotional benefits from helping others. These findings work to humanize ex-offenders who are often viewed as irredeemable, and also offer guidance for re-evaluating how criminal and high-risk populations are treated. For example, the present evidence suggests that altruistic based intervention strategies may provide effective routes for treatment. This possibility aligns with emerging offender rehabilitation theories that advocate for strength-based approaches to inmate or offender reintegration and rehabilitation, endorsing the notion that happiness and individual well-being may serve as a buffer for repeat offending.