Showing papers in "Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency in 1993"
TL;DR: In this article, a factor analysis of items designed to measure low self-control is consistent with their contention that the trait is unidimensional and the proposed interaction effect is found for self-reported acts of both fraud and force (their definition of crime).
Abstract: In A General Theory of Crime, Gottfredson and Hirschi propose that low self-control, in interaction with criminal opportunity, is the major cause of crime. The research reported in this article attempts to test this argument while closely following the nominal definitions presented by Gottfredson and Hirschi. A factor analysis of items designed to measure low self-control is consistent with their contention that the trait is unidimensional. Further, the proposed interaction effect is found for self-reported acts of both fraud and force (their definition of crime). Inconsistent with the theory are (a) the finding that criminal opportunity has a significant main effect, beyond its interaction with low self-control, on self-reported crime and (b) the substantial proportion of variance in crime left unexplained by the theoretical variables. Suggestions are offered for modifying and expanding the theory.
1,981 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a theory of "defiance" helps explain the conditions under which punishment increases crime, and suggests that crime might be reduced more by police and courts treating all citizens with fairness and respect than by increasing punishments.
Abstract: Increasing evidence shows great diversity in the effects of the criminal sanction. Legal punishment either reduces, increases, or has no effect on future crimes, depending on the type of offenders, offenses, social settings, and levels of analysis. A theory of “defiance” helps explain the conditions under which punishment increases crime. Procedural justice (fairness or legitimacy) of experienced punishment is essential for the acknowledgment of shame, which conditions deterrence; punishment perceived as unjust can lead to unacknowledged shame and defiant pride that increases future crime. Both “specific” defiance by individuals and “general” defiance by collectivities results from punishment perceived as unfair or excessive, unless deterrent effects counterbalance defiance and render the net effect of sanctions irrelevant. By implication, crime might be reduced more by police and courts treating all citizens with fairness and respect than by increasing punishments. A variety of research designs can be us...
1,038 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined alternative explanations for why gang members are more likely to have higher rates of serious and violent crime than nongang members, and they found that gang members did not have high rates of delinquent behavior or drug use before entering the gang, but once they became members, their rates increased substantially.
Abstract: This study examines alternative explanations for why gang members are more likely to have higher rates of serious and violent crime than nongang members. Specifically, three models are posited: (a) a selection or “kind of person” model; (b) a social facilitation or “kind of group” model; and (c) an enhancement model that combines aspects of the selection and social facilitation models. Each model has different implications for the rate of delinquency and drug use of gang members before, during, and after membership in a gang. Data from the Rochester Youth Development Study, a panel study that overrepresents adolescents at high risk for serious delinquent behavior and drug use, are used to compare these models. Findings indicate that gang members, as compared to nongang members, did not have higher rates of delinquent behavior or drug use before entering the gang, but once they became members, their rates increased substantially. Moreover, when gang members left the gang their rates of delinquency typicall...
647 citations
TL;DR: The distinction between general and specific deterrence is widely recognized and accepted by deterrence researchers, and is used commonly to classify deterrence studies as mentioned in this paper. But the logical and empirical grounds for the distinction are not as clear as they might appear, and the conventional conception has done more to obfuscate than to clarify the deterrence process.
Abstract: The distinction between general and specific deterrence is widely recognized and accepted by deterrence researchers, and is used commonly to classify deterrence studies. However, the logical and empirical grounds for the distinction are not as clear as they might appear, and the conventional conception has done more to obfuscate than to clarify the deterrence process. Following a discussion of these issues, the authors propose a reconceptualization of general and specific deterrence, and apply it to several current controversies in the deterrence literature.
518 citations
409 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a secondary analysis of data from a roadside traffic survey was conducted to test the relationship between self-control and driving under the influence of alcohol, and the results support the existence of a relationship for both men and women between low self control and driving Under the Influence of alcohol.
Abstract: Recently, Gottfredson and Hirschi proposed a general theory of crime. Central to the theory is the assumption that most criminal behavior is impulsive and reflects a lack of self-control. Thus criminals are seen as risk takers who are less restrained than noncriminals from illegal activities. In a secondary analysis of data from a roadside traffic survey, this study attempts to test Gottfredson and Hirschi's theory by examining the relationship between self-control and driving under the influence of alcohol. Using several indicators of self-control, the results support the existence of a relationship for both men and women between low self-control and driving under the influence of alcohol.
335 citations
TL;DR: According to social control theory, adolescents low in attachment, commitment, and belief are more likely to engage in delinquency because they are free to satisfy universal human needs in the most expedient manner.
Abstract: According to social control theory, adolescents low in attachment, commitment, and belief are more likely to engage in delinquency because they are free to satisfy universal human needs in the most expedient manner—which is often delinquency. This account of intervening processes has been challenged by strain and differential association/social learning theory. Among other things, it has been argued that (a) these social control variables also cause delinquency because they lead to strain and association with delinquent peers: and (b) the motivation for delinquency is variable, and these control variables only lead to delinquency among suitably motivated individuals, that is, individuals who are strained or who associate with delinquent peers. Data from the Youth in Transition Survey and the National Youth Survey provide support for these challenges.
176 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a qualitative study of a delinquent street group reveals that the routine activities approach is insufficient in explaining how interactions escalate to violence and points to the need to expand the routine activity approach to include a choice component and integrate it with a subcultural approach.
Abstract: Research using the routine activities perspective has relied on official crime statistics, victimization surveys, and demographic variables for data. Findings from this work indicates that the degree of exposure that individuals experience following certain lifestyle patterns increases property and personal crime victimization. A qualitative study of a delinquent street group reveals that the routine activities approach is insufficient in explaining how interactions escalate to violence. Instead it points to the need to expand the routine activities approach to include a choice component and integrate it with a subcultural approach. Subcultural norms influence actors' routine activities that, in turn, influence exposure to victimization and shape the behavioral choices available to members in response to victimization. Subcultures, routines, and choices also influence offending patterns. Subcultural values affect the choice of victims, and third parties appear to influence the “rules of the game,” and the...
123 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigated the seasonality of homicide and robbery in Israel from 1977 to 1985 and found that robbery would show a seasonal trend and would peak during the winter (November through March) due to the increase in the cost of living and the facilitating environmental conditions during these months.
Abstract: The relationship between season of the year and criminal behavior is a classical topic in criminological research. However, much of the research in this field is atheoretical and the findings are inconsistent and contradictory. The present study investigated the seasonality of homicide and robbery in Israel from 1977 to 1985. The authors' analysis was informed by the routine activity approach, which views crime as a function of three main elements: motivated offenders, suitable targets, and absence of guardians. Based on this approach and on the differences between homicide and robbery (with regard to motivation, victim-offender relationships, and planning), the authors hypothesized that robbery would show a seasonal trend and would peak during the winter (November through March) due to the increase in the cost of living and the facilitating environmental conditions during these months. In contrast, they expected homicide to be most prevalent in August (when social interaction is at its highest level), an...
92 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the elements involved in female perpetration of robbery and aggravated assault including motive, victim precipitation, victim-offender relationship, accomplices, precipitating circumstances, preparation, and use of weapons.
Abstract: The study examines the elements involved in female perpetration of robbery and aggravated assault including motive, victim precipitation, victim-offender relationship, accomplices, precipitating circumstances, preparation, and use of weapons. The data suggest that there are clear underlying differences in the perpetration of violent crimes. They show that robbery is more frequently planned, more impersonal, and more instrumental than assault. Assault was clearly an impulsive criminal offense. However, it was not totally irrational. Each woman's actions were a function of the victim's behavior and the implications of that behavior for defending one's well-being or public self-concept. The data indicate that lifestyle factors (e.g., peer association, serious drug use) are associated with participation in robbery. The findings also suggest that the women's lifestyles and routine activities increased their probability of exposure to situations that were associated with more serious disputes. In addition to di...
82 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigated the effectiveness of the Community Control Program compared to imprisonment, as measured by recidivism, and found that the survival curves of the two groups are essentially the same.
Abstract: Florida's Community Control Program is the nation's largest intermediate sanction (home confinement) program for felons. The question addressed in this research is the effectiveness of this sanction compared to imprisonment, as measured by recidivism. The rearrest, reconviction, imprisonment, and recidivism survival of the first cohort of convicted felons sentenced to Community Control were tracked for nearly five years and compared to the recidivism of a partially matched group of convicted felons released from prison. The findings from the research show that the recidivism rates and survival curves of the two groups are essentially the same. Approximately 4 out of 5 felony offenders sentenced to Community Control or prison recidivated during the five-year study.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors propose dynamic contextualism as a promising paradigm for future criminological inquiry, which recognizes and attempts to join developmental and historical insights, event structures and community context, qualitative narratives and causal explanation, and ultimately, time and place.
Abstract: In this article, the author proposes dynamic contextualism as a promising paradigm for future criminological inquiry. This approach recognizes and attempts to join developmental and historical insights, event structures and community context, qualitative narratives and causal explanation, and ultimately, time and place. At core, the author focuses on the unfolding of human lives in particular contexts, but argues that one must also come to grips with social change and the simultaneous—sometimes asynchronous—changing of lives and macrolevel forces (e.g., community, societal). In making his case, the author highlights the key limitations of current community-level and longitudinal approaches, and then presents concrete alternative strategies for future research designs.
TL;DR: The authors examined research issues in the study of drugs in rural areas, drawing on the author's experiences in studying domestic marijuana production, and concluded that the lack of research in rural communities presents a unique set of problems.
Abstract: Most research on drug use and the drug industry in the United States has been done in urban areas. On a practical level, the neglect of rural areas is important because these areas (a) have problems with drug use, (b) are important in the transshipment of drugs across the country, and (c) are increasingly the sites for the production of synthetic drugs and marijuana. From a methodological and theoretical standpoint, the study of variability is the essence of the scientific approach. By excluding substantial rural-urban differences, the study of the drug industry is seriously handicapped. Research in rural areas presents a unique set of problems, however. This study examines research issues in the study of drugs in rural areas, drawing on the author's experiences in studying domestic marijuana production.
TL;DR: In this paper, some suggestions are made on how to reform criminology so that its creative and evaluative focus is more directed at what Bateson in 1972 called "systemic wisdom".
Abstract: Good criminologists are interpretively flexible, searching to read situations from the different angles illuminated by multiple theories. Plural understandings of a crime problem stimulate a disparate range of action possibilities that can be integrated into a hedged, mutually reinforcing package of preventive policies. Positivist criminology has its uses in informing the kind of research-policy interface advanced. Its limitation is that it focuses on short-term, decontextualized policies that are intentionally disentangled from integrated policy packages. This when it is long-term, dynamically responsive, and contextualized, integrated assaults that are more likely to bear fruit. Some suggestions are made on how to reform criminology so that its creative and evaluative focus is more directed at what Bateson in 1972 called “systemic wisdom.” The alternative is to settle for a positivism that almost inevitably leads to a policy analysis of despair about the intractability of the crime problem. That “nothin...
TL;DR: This article examined the relationship between a preference for heavy metal music among a large sample of suburban high school youth (N = 715) and delinquency, controlling for parental and school-related variables, as well as delinquent associations.
Abstract: The authors examined the relationship between a preference for heavy metal music among a large sample of suburban high school youth (N = 715) and delinquency, controlling for parental and school-related variables, as well as delinquent associations. They found support for the hypothesis that heavy metal has an effect on delinquency when parental control is low. However, they found no support for the hypothesized interaction between a preference for heavy metal and delinquent peers. Contrary to expectations, those students with better school marks and a preference for heavy metal music had higher amounts of self-reported delinquency.
TL;DR: The authors compared cross-sectional and longitudinal changes in the severity of criminal behavior from ages 11 through 14 among three groups of urban males: narcotic addicts and two distinctly different control groups.
Abstract: This study compared cross-sectional and longitudinal changes in the severity of criminal behavior from ages 11 through 14 among three groups of urban males: narcotic addicts and two distinctly different control groups. One never-addicted control group (peer controls) were selected from peers who were associates of the addicts at age 11. A second never-addicted control group (community controls) was drawn from age-11 male residents of the community at large who were not associates of the addicts. Results indicated clear differences in the criminal behavior patterns of the three subject groups, with addicts reporting the greatest, and community controls the least, involvement in crime in early adolescence at all levels of severity. In addition, within the addict sample, involvement in crime at each severity level was inversely related to age at onset of narcotic addiction. Further, the addicts, regardless of age of onset, are distinguished from controls by noteworthy increases in the proportions of subjects...
TL;DR: In this paper, a social indicators program for criminology can focus crime indicators and sharpen other social indicators to make them more relevant to crime, which can help drive the collection and organization of social indicators.
Abstract: Social indicators are measures of social change. Not only does social change often impinge on crime but it may undermine crime theories. By paying more attention to social indicators, criminology can keep in better touch with today's realities and adjust itself to an emerging future. A social indicators program for criminology can focus crime indicators and sharpen other social indicators to make them more relevant to crime. In sum, social indicators can help drive criminology, while criminology can help drive the collection and organization of social indicators.
TL;DR: This paper argued that research in crime and delinquency will become more sophisticated and pointed out the problems related to overgeneralization, narrow conception, and hazardous collinearity in criminal behavior.
Abstract: The author argues that research in crime and delinquency will become more sophisticated. Philosophical, theoretical, and empirical problems related to overgeneralization, narrow conception, and hazardous collinearity are brought into focus in a discussion of research on criminal behavior.
TL;DR: This paper examined the relationship between type of place and juvenile delinquency in an effort to extend knowledge about the determinist theory and found that delinquency does not predict urbanness, while urbanness does predict negative consequences of exposure to urban environments.
Abstract: This research examines the relationship between type of place and juvenile delinquency in an effort to extend knowledge about the “determinist” theory. This theory predicts a positive relationship between type of place and delinquency, and that relationship will be mediated by “urbanism,” the negative consequences of exposure to urban environments. The theory is tested using two measures of type of place, six measures of urbanism, and three delinquency indexes. The results provide little support for the determinist theory. Delinquency does not predict urbanness, and urbanness does not predict urbanism. Urbanism does, however, prove to be a significant predictor of delinquency.