Showing papers in "Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency in 2003"
TL;DR: In this article, the relationship between neighborhood structure, social control, and crime has been studied in the context of social disorganization theory, and some promising new directions in social disorganized theory have been charted.
Abstract: Social disorganization theory focuses on the relationship between neighborhood structure, social control, and crime. Recent theoretical and empirical work on the relationship between community characteristics and crime has led to important refinements of social disorganization theory, yet there remain some substantive and methodological deficiencies in this body of work. This article addresses these problems and charts some promising new directions in social disorganization theory.
760 citations
TL;DR: This article examined the influence of neighborhood context on the level of force police exercise during police-suspect encounters using hierarchical linear modeling techniques and found that police officers are significantly more likely to use higher levels of force when suspects are encountered in disadvantaged neighborhoods and those with higher homicide rates, net of situational factors and officer-based determinants.
Abstract: Explanations of police coercion have been traditionally embedded within sociological, psychological, and organizational theoretical frameworks. Largely absent from the research are examinations exploring the role of neighborhood context on police use-of-force practices. Using data collected as part of a systematic social observation study of police in Indianapolis, Indiana, and St. Petersburg, Florida, this research examines the influence of neighborhood context on the level of force police exercise during police-suspect encounters using hierarchical linear modeling techniques. The authors found police officers are significantly more likely to use higher levels of force when suspects are encountered in disadvantaged neighborhoods and those with higher homicide rates, net of situational factors (e.g., suspect resistance) and officer-based determinants (e.g., age, education, and training). Also found is that the effect of the suspect's race is mediated by neighborhood context. The results reaffirm Smith's 1...
568 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the role of self-control in the generation of crime and drug use as well as its link to negative social consequences, and found that low self control predicts a range of criminal behaviors as well and drug usage.
Abstract: Using a sample of 400 homeless street youth, this article examines the role that self-control plays in the generation of crime and drug use as well as its link to negative social consequences. It also explores if these social consequences are themselves related to crime as predicted in strain and differential association theory, or if their impact is eliminated by the presence of low self-control. The results reveal that low self-control predicts a range of criminal behaviors as well as drug use. Consistent with the general theory, low self-control influences the association with deviant peers, the adoption of deviant values, length of unemployment, and length of homelessness. However, the results reveal that a number of social consequences; including deviant peers, deviant values, length of homelessness, relative deprivation, and monetary dis-satisfaction; have an effect on criminal behavior and drug use controlling for self-control lending support to other theoretical perspectives. Results are discussed...
258 citations
TL;DR: A prospective study of 206 women who, in the period from 1973 to 1975, were treated in a hospital emergency room in a major city following a report of sexual abuse, their subsequent juvenile and adult criminal records were compared to a matched comparison group.
Abstract: Child sexual abuse has been hypothesized to be an especially significant factor in the etiology of girls’ delinquency and women’s crime. This article reports on a prospective study of 206 women who, in the period from 1973 to 1975, were treated in a hospital emergency room in a major city following a report of sexual abuse. Their subsequent juvenile and adult criminal records were compared to a matched comparison group. Child sexual abuse was a statistically significant predictor of certain types of offenses, but other indicators of familial neglect and abuse were significant factors as well.
251 citations
TL;DR: This paper investigated two competing explanations for the positive punishment effect, namely selection and resetting, and reported a preliminary empirical investigation of these explanations and addressed the challenge to contemporary deterrence theory posed by the “positive punishment effect.
Abstract: Several recent studies report that punished individuals appear more likely to offend in the future and believe that the certainty of punishment is lower than do their less punished/unpunished counterparts. This article investigates two competing explanations for the latter finding. Under the selection account, punishment simply identifies the most committed offenders whose certainty estimates, even following punishment, remain lower than those of less committed offenders. The second account, resetting, invokes a judgment and decision-making bias known as the “gambler’s fallacy.” Under this explanation, punished offenders reset their sanction certainty estimate, apparently believing they would have to be exceedingly unlucky to be apprehended again. Herein, we report a preliminary empirical investigation of these explanations and address the challenge to contemporary deterrence theory posed by the “positive punishment effect.”
219 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors focus on gender and age variations and using various measures of self-control and of crime/deviance, they provide additional evidence concerning the strongest implications of self control theory.
Abstract: Focusing on gender and age variations and using various measures of self-control and of crime/deviance, the authors' provide additional evidence concerning the strongest implications of self-control theory—that self-control interprets the main demo-graphic facts about crime/deviance and is of approximately equal import for all sub-categories of individuals. On one hand, the results are strongly supportive of the theory, showing that some measures of self-control not only predict misbehavior but they interpret the associations between gender and age and measures of crime/deviance. On the other hand, self-control does not appear to predict misbehavior equally well among various subcategories of individuals, particularly not for age groups, even failing to predict misbehavior at all for some groupings. Moreover, sup-port for the strongest claims of the theory are not robust, varying depending on how self-control and crime/deviance are measured.
214 citations
TL;DR: This article replicated Sampson and Groves's findings with data from the 1994 British Crime Survey and found that similar models with similar measures yield results consistent with social disorganization theory and consistent with the results presented by Sampson-Groves.
Abstract: Using data from the British Crime Survey conducted in 1982, Sampson and Groves provided a convincing test of social disorganization theory. Although macro-level theory was in the midst of a revival when this investigation appeared, no single article did more to polish the previously tarnished image of social disorganization theory than Sampson and Groves's analysis; in fact, this work has become a criminological classic. Subsequent research, however, has not systematically replicated this study. Questions thus remain as to whether Sampson and Groves uncovered enduring empirical realities or idiosyncratic relationships reflecting the time period from which the data were drawn. In this context, the current research seeks to replicate Sampson and Groves's findings with data from the 1994 British Crime Survey. Analyses of similar models with similar measures yield results consistent with social disorganization theory and consistent with the results presented by Sampson and Groves. Our study suggests, therefor...
205 citations
TL;DR: The authors examined the extent to which the effects of race on youth justice outcomes are influenced by gender and family status and found that being African American affects justice outcomes, outcomes for Whites are conditioned by gender, and decision-making should be viewed as a process involving both severe and lenient outcomes.
Abstract: Relying on interpretations of the symbolic threat thesis as a theoretical framework, in particular the emphasis on the perceptions of decision-makers and stereotyping, the authors examine the extent to which the effects of race on youth justice outcomes are influenced by gender and family status. They are especially interested in the individual and joint effects among the three. Although some studies in the adult literature have examined these variables, research on the influence of race, gender, and family status on juvenile justice decision-making is lacking. The inquiry is on four juvenile court jurisdictions in Iowa. The results from logistic regressions indicate that being African American affects justice outcomes, outcomes for Whites are conditioned by gender and family status, and decision-making should be viewed as a process involving both severe and lenient outcomes.
194 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine whether subjective perceptions of community safety are informed by the built environment, and find that the neighborhood built environment serves as a heuristic device, providing cues about likely levels of neighborhood crime, independent of the effects of neighbourhood crime itself.
Abstract: In this article, the authors examine whether subjective perceptions of community safety are informed by the built environment. They posit that the built environment serves as a heuristic device, providing cues about likely levels of neighborhood crime, independent of the effects of neighborhood crime itself. Using data on 4,456individuals nested within 100 census tracts, the authors estimate hierarchical logistic models of perceived community crime risk. They focus on the role of the neighborhood built environment in the form of aggregated perceptions of nonresidential land use, while controlling for individual-level criminal opportunity, community-level social structural antecedents, and community-level objective crime. The findings indicate that the neighborhood-level presence of businesses and parks and playgrounds increases individual perceptions of community danger, but these effects disappear once neighborhood crime rates are controlled. The presence of schools has no effect on subjective interpreta...
167 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors used a more complete conceptual framework to guide multivariate analysis of the factors affecting the clearance of 802 homicides in Columbus, Ohio, between 1984 and 1992, and found strong support for the argument that the visibility of homicide and the singular importance of homicide clearances cause homicide detectives to work aggressively to clear all homicides irrespective of where they occur or the characteristics of homicide victims.
Abstract: Scholarly study of the factors affecting homicide clearances is at the same point as scholarly study of police patrol officers more than 50 years ago. In particular, major organizing frameworks provide fundamentally contradictory images, and only a handful of multivariate studies exist. The present research partially remedies these problems by advancing a more complete conceptual framework and then by using that framework to guide multivariate analysis of the factors affecting the clearance of 802 homicides in Columbus, Ohio, between 1984 and 1992. Consistent with the more complete conceptual framework, there is strong support for the argument that the visibility of homicide and the singular importance of homicide clearances cause homicide detectives to work aggressively to clear all homicides irrespective of where they occur or the characteristics of homicide victims. Also consistent with the framework, the authors find no support for previous arguments that detective experience and workload affect homic...
150 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the structural covariates of homicide rates in St. Louis neighborhoods were investigated and it was shown that socioeconomic and demographic characteristics are correlated with different types of homicides, thereby addressing the question of whether homicides are sufficiently distinct in nature that their levels are not equally associated with community characteristics.
Abstract: This research extends a 1990 study by Land, McCall, and Cohen on the structural covariates of homicide rates Examining neighborhoods in St Louis, this study assesses whether socioeconomic and demographic characteristics are correlated with different types of homicide, thereby addressing the question of whether homicides are sufficiently distinct in nature that their levels are not equally associated with community characteristics The findings indicate that while residential instability is associated only with felony killings, economic disadvantage is associated with all of the homicide categories The theoretical significance of the findings for theories of violent crime is discussed
TL;DR: This article found that low-wage, service sector employment opportunity directly increases the likelihood of violent delinquency, and that a small proportion of this effect is mediated by school achievement and attachment.
Abstract: Most criminological theory is cast at either the macro or micro level. Developmental and integrated theories are an exception as they combine community characteristics such as neighborhood poverty with micro-level processes. What remains lacking, however, is attention to labor market conditions. The authors address this gap by testing a contextual model that links local labor market structure, adolescent attachments, and violent delinquency. Analyses draw from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Our findings suggest that low-wage, service sector employment opportunity directly increases the likelihood of violent delinquency. A small proportion of this effect is mediated by school achievement and attachment. The low-wage service sector effect uncovered remains when important micro-level processes including prior violence are controlled. The authors conclude by discussing the persistent low-wage service sector effect, the intervening processes we do uncover, and implications for future the...
TL;DR: In this article, a longitudinal study of at-risk boys interviewed annually from ages 9 to 10 years to ages 23 to 24 years was used to identify six trajectory classes using the latent growth mixture modeling approach: chronic high level, chronic low level, decreasing high-level, decreasing lowlevel, rare, and nonoffenders.
Abstract: Previous research has emphasized the importance of heterogeneity in offense trajectories. Using data from the Oregon Youth Study, a longitudinal study of at-risk boys interviewed annually from ages 9 to 10 years to ages 23 to 24 years, this study examined childhood and adolescent covariates of observed offending trajectory classes. Six trajectory classes were identified using the latent growth mixture modeling approach: chronic high-level, chronic low-level, decreasing high-level, decreasing low-level, rare, and nonoffenders. Multinomial logistic regressions revealed that nonoffenders, rare offenders, and chronic high-level offenders were distinguished by individual, family, and peer factors measured in childhood and adolescence. Only adolescent covariates (deviant peers, various problem behaviors) distinguished among trajectories of adolescents who engaged in substantive amounts of offending behavior. Overall, there was more specificity than commonality in correlates of distinctive offending trajectories.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors consider the relationship between delinquency and several dimensions of adolescent employment, including learning opportunities, freedom and autonomy, social status, demands and stress, wages, and compatibility between work and school.
Abstract: Some theories of crime suggest that “adultlike” work conditions diminish adolescent delinquency, whereas others suggest that precocious entry into adult work roles increases youth problem behaviors. The authors consider the relationship between delinquency and several dimensions of adolescent employment, including learning opportunities, freedom and autonomy, social status, demands and stress, wages, and compatibility between work and school. They find the lowest rates of 12th-grade school deviance, alcohol use, and arrest among adolescents whose jobs supported rather than displaced academic roles and provided opportunities for them to learn new things. In contrast, many qualities of work considered desirable for adults (autonomy, social status, and wages) appear to increase delinquency in adolescence. The authors conclude that work conditions have age-graded effects on delinquency that are contingent on the life course stage of the worker.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the validity of drug arrest data at the neighborhood level by analyzing the extent to which police arrest rates for drug trafficking can be accounted for by survey measures of the frequency of drug trafficking, as well as neighborhood-level variables thought to be associated with police discretion.
Abstract: Criminologists have long debated the validity of arrest data as a measure of crime at the aggregate level. It has been argued that arrest data may reflect differences in police behavior across neighborhoods rather than differences in offending rates. Consequently, criminologists have generally come to favor less processed data. Unfortunately, official counts of drug offenses are generally available only in terms of arrests, making official drug data particularly susceptible to validity questions. In this study, the authors examine the validity of drug arrest data at the neighborhood level by analyzing the extent to which police arrest rates for drug trafficking can be accounted for by survey measures of the frequency of drug trafficking, as well as neighborhood-level variables thought to be associated with police discretion. Findings suggest support for the use of drug arrest data as a meaningful measure of the relative level of visible drug activity among neighborhoods.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined a joint effort by the Bureau of Justice Assistance and the city of Richmond, California, to apply the lessons of problem-oriented policing to homicide work.
Abstract: Criminal justice practitioners and scholars have traditionally held that homicide is relatively immune from police suppression efforts. Recently, the widespread adoption of community and problem-oriented policing and concomitant decreases in violent crime have raised questions about what the police can reasonably be expected to accomplish. This article examines a joint effort by the Bureau of Justice Assistance and the city of Richmond, California, to apply the lessons of problem-oriented policing to homicide work. Analyses of Richmond homicides from 1985 to 1998 suggest that the nature and pattern of murders changed notably following adoption of the new policing philosophy, and interrupted time-series analysis with homicide data from 75 other California cities suggests the changes in Richmond were unique. Results indicate that homicide prevention is a critical police responsibility and that by employing problem-oriented strategies and garnering citizen involvement, police may be able to effectively reduc...