bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
STICK‐UP, STREET CULTURE, AND OFFENDER MOTIVATION*
Authors: JACOBS BRUCE A. , WRIGHT RICHARD
Published: March 2006

Motivation is the central, yet arguably the most assumed, causal variable in the etiology of criminal behavior. Criminology's incomplete and imprecise understanding of this construct can be traced to the discipline's strong emphasis on background risk factors, open to the exclusion of subjective foreground conditions. In this article, we attempt to remedy this by exploring the decision‐making processes of active armed robbers in real‐life settings and circumstances. Our aim is to understand how and why these offenders move from an unmotivated state to one in which they are determined to commit robbery. Drawing from semistructured interviews with 86 active armed robbers, we argue that while the decision to commit robbery stems most directly from a perceived need for fast cash, this decision is activated, mediated, and shaped by participation in street culture. Street culture, and its constituent conduct norms, represents an essential intervening variable linking criminal motivation to background risk factors and subjective foreground conditions.
EXPLAINING THE GENDER DIFFERENCE IN ADOLESCENT DELINQUENT BEHAVIOR: A LONGITUDINAL TEST OF MEDIATING MECHANISMS*
Authors: LIU XIAORU , KAPLAN HOWARD B.
Published: March 2006

The extent to which mediating mechanisms account for the gender difference in delinquency was tested on a sample of 2, 753 adolescents studied across three points in time. Results using structural equations modeling showed that males are more likely to be involved in delinquent activities, partly because they are less bound to conventional values, more likely to be associated with delinquent peers, and report more adverse experiences with the authorities. These effects remain after partialling out the stability effect of prior delinquency and other sociodemographidstructral variables. However, although males are more likely than females to report frustration in achievement, frustration in achievement does not directly affect subsequent delinquent behavior in a multivariate context. In addition, adolescent males and females tend to report similar patterns of delinquent activities, and the influences of mediating variables on delinquent outcome are generally similar for males and females.
UNEMPLOYMENT, IMPRISONMENT, AND SOCIAL STRUCTURES OF ACCUMULATION: HISTORICAL CONTINGENCY IN THE RUSCHE‐KIRCHHEIMER HYPOTHESIS*
Authors: MICHALOWSKI RAYMOND J. , CARLSON SUSAN M.
Published: March 2006

This study explores the relationship between punishment and social structure by combining the work of Rusche and Kirchheimer with current theorizing regarding social structures of accumulation (SSAs). Specifically, we theorize that the unemployment‐imprisonment (U‐I) relationship is historically contingent. In particular, we argue that qualitative changes in the configuration of labor markets, state strategies for managing surplus populations, and international relations across SSAs and stages within them result in changes in the magnitude and direction of the U‐I relationship. In other words, changes in the qualitative relations among capital, labor, and the state are reflected in quantitative changes in the relationship between rates of unemployment and imprisonment. We hypothesize that three stages of the Fordist SSA (exploration, 1933–1947; consolidation, 1948–1966; decay, 1967–1979) will manifest varying levels of a positive and significant U‐I relationship, while the first stage of the new globalized, cyber‐technology SSA (1980–1992) will be characterized by a negative U‐I relationship due to the co‐emergence of a (semi)permanent underclass and an intensification of punitiveness. We test this model using a structurally periodized analysis to determine if the relationship between rates of unemployment and new court admissions to prison (net of rates of violent crime) differs across the four periods studied. Our analysis of the U‐I relationship within each SSA phase, and time‐varying parameter tests of the periodization of twentieth‐century capitalist development, indicate that the U‐I relationship is indeed historically contingent and warrants further structurally periodized analysis.
THE GENDERING OF VIOLENT DELINQUENCY*
Authors: HEIMER KAREN , COSTER STACY DE
Published: March 2006

This article addresses two issues that have received little attention in empirical research‐the mechanisms explaining variation in violent delinquency within gender and variation in levels of violence across gender, or the gender gap. Toward these ends, the article synthesizes arguments from differential association theory, feminist theory, and gender studies. The outcome is a theoretical model of gender and violent delinquency that focuses on the interplay between structural positions and cultural processes. The theoretical model includes a core construct of differential association theory‐the learning of definitions favorable to violence‐as well as arguments about cultural definitions or meanings of gender and gender differences in the role of familial controls and peer influence, which are derived from feminist theory and gender studies. It then examines how these cultural processes are conditioned by structural positions. One of the key arguments is that the violent delinquency of females is controlled through rather subtle, indirect mechanisms, while the violence of males is controlled in more direct, overt ways. The results of the empirical analysis support the the‐oretical arguments, contribute to the limited understanding of the variation in violent offending among females, and explain the sources of the gender gap in violent delinquency. The article thereby allows greater understanding of the broader phenomenon of juvenile violence.
AN EMPIRICAL TEST OF TITTLE'S CONTROL BALANCE THEORY*
Authors: PIQUERO ALEX R. , HICKMAN MATTHEW
Published: March 2006

Classic statements of control theory propose that individuals who are controlled or bonded will be more likely to be deterred from deviance, while those who are not controlled or bonded will be more likely to turn to deviance. In a recent restatement of control theory, Tittle (1995) offers an alternative viewpoint. Though he agrees that a lack of control (a control deficit) can lead to repressive forms of deviance (predation, defiance, and submission), Tittle also asserts that overcontrol (a control surplus) may lead to autonomous types of deviance (exploitation, plunder, and decadence). Terming it control balance theory, Tittle argues that the amount of control to which one is subject relative to the amount of control one can exercise (i.e., the control ratio) affects not only the probability that one will engage in a deviant act, but also the specific form or type of deviance. In this article, we focus on one of the key hypotheses of control balance theory: an individual's control balance ratio predicts deviant behavior. We examine this hypothesis using two vignettes designed to investigate the repressive acts of predation and defiance. Segmented, nonlinear regression results yield mixed evidence in that both control surpluses and control deficits significantly predict predation and defiance. The theoretical implications of our results for control balance theory are discussed.
STRESSFUL LIFE EVENTS AND DELINQUENCY ESCALATION IN EARLY ADOLESCENCE*
Authors: HOFFMANN JOHN P. , CERBONE FELICIA GRAY
Published: March 2006

A recent emphasis in criminology has been on trajectories, life transitions, and turning points that affect the escalation, stabilization, or desistance of deviant behavior. The purpose of this article is to describe and examine one potential pathway of delinquency escalation in early and mid‐adolescence. It draws upon Agnew's general strain theory and research on adolescent stress to describe a significant transitory stage of the life course. A key organizing principle underlying the proposed pathway is that although stressful life events are highly variable among adolescents, experiencing a persistent or increasing number over time can lead to an escalation of delinquency. Using four years of sequential data from the Family Health Study (651 adolescents aged 11–14 during year one), we estimate a hierarchical growth‐curve model that emphasizes the effects of life events on delinquency. The model assumes that delinquency is distributed as an overdispersed Poisson random variable. The results indicate that experiencing a relatively high number of life events over time is related to a significant “growth” of delinquency but that this relationship is not affected by sex, family income, self‐esteem, or mastery.
SELF‐CONTROL AND INTIMATE VIOLENCE: AN EXAMINATION OF THE SCOPE AND SPECIFICATION OF THE GENERAL THEORY OF CRIME*
Authors: SELLERS CHRISTINE S.
Published: March 2006

Ambiguities in Gottfredson and Hirschi's general theory of crime have generated doubts about the explanatory scope of the theory and inconsistencies in the specification of models attempting to test it. In particular, the theory has been criticized for its inability to explain intimate violence; however, an empirical test of this criticism cannot be conducted appropriately unless the theoretical model has been adequately specified. This study tests four models of self‐control theory for their ability to explain one form of intimate violence: courtship aggression. Logistic regression analysis was used to assess the ability of measures of low self‐control, opportunity, and perceptions of reward to predict the probability of courtship violence in a sample of 985 students currently involved in a dating relationship. The results indicate that while the main effects of low self‐control, opportunity, and perception of immediate gratification are significant predictors of the probability of using violence in a dating relationship, it is less clear whether the functional form of the theoretical model accommodates the interaction between low self‐control and either opportunity or perceived rewards.
HOMICIDE, STRUCTURAL FACTORS, AND THE RACIAL INVARIANCE ASSUMPTION*
Authors: OUSEY GRAHAM C.
Published: March 2006

Structural theories in criminology generally assume that the effects of structural conditions on homicide are the same for all race‐groups. However, previous homicide research testing this assumption contains methodological shortcomings and has produced inconsistent findings. Therefore, the validity of the “racial invariance assumption” remains highly questionable. Using 1990 data for 125 U.S. cities, this study addresses some of the limitations of previous research in an effort to provide a more definitive examination of race differences in the effects of important structural factors on homicide rates. Contrary to the expectations of the structural perspective, the results from this study reveal substantial and statistically significant race differences. Specifically, the associations between homicide and several measures of socio‐economic deprivation (e.g., poverty, unemployment, income inequality, female‐headed households, deprivation index) are found to be stronger among whites than blacks. A primary implication of these results is that the current versions of many structural theories need revision in order to account for observed race differences in the effects of structural factors and to explain fully the black‐white gap in homicide rates.
LOW SELF‐CONTROL, SOCIAL BONDS, AND CRIME: SOCIAL CAUSATION, SOCIAL SELECTION, OR BOTH?*
Authors: WRIGHT BRADLEY R. ENTNER , CASPI AVSHALOM , MOFFITT TERRIE E. , SILVA PHIL A.
Published: March 2006

This article examines the social‐selection and social‐causation processes that generate criminal behavior. We describe these processes with three theoretical models: a social‐causation model that links crime to contemporaneous social relationships; a social‐selection model that links crime to personal characteristics formed in childhood; and a mixed selection‐causation model that links crime to social relationships and childhood characteristics. We tested these models with a longitudinal study in Dunedin, New Zealand, of individuals followed from birth through age 21. We analyzed measures of childhood and adolescent low self‐control as well as adolescent and adult social bonds and criminal behavior. In support of social selection, we found that low self‐control in childhood predicted disrupted social bonds and criminal offending later in life. In support of social causation, we found that social bonds and adolescent delinquency predicted later adult crime and, further, that the effect of self‐control on crime was largely mediated by social bonds. In support of both selection and causation, we found that the social‐causation effects remained significant even when controlling for preexisting levels of self‐control, but that their effects diminished. Taken together, these findings support theoretical models that incorporate social‐selection and social‐causation processes.
HIGH SCHOOL EXPERIENCE AND THE RISK OF ADULT INCARCERATION*
Authors: Arum Richard , Beattie Irenee R.
Published: March 2006

This study assesses the effects of high school educational experiences on the risk of incarceration for young men aged 19–36 using event history analysis and National Longitudinal Survey of Youth data. High school education serves as a defining moment in an individual's life course. Young men who enroll in secondary occupational course work significantly reduce their likelihood of incarceration both overall and net of differences in the adult labor market. High school student/teacher ratios and student composition also significantly affect an individual's risk of incarceration.
PROBLEM‐ORIENTED POLICING IN VIOLENT CRIME PLACES: A RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED EXPERIMENT*
Authors: BRAGA ANTHONY A. , WEISBURD DAVID L. , WARING ELIN J. , MAZEROLLE LORRAINE GREEN , SPELMAN WILLIAM , GAJEWSKI FRANCIS
Published: March 2006

Over the past decade, problem‐oriented policing has become a central strategy for policing. In a number of studies, problem‐oriented policing has been found to be effective in reducing crime and disorder. However, very little is known about the value of problem‐oriented interventions in controlling violent street crime. The National Academy of Sciences' Panel on the Understanding and Control of Violent Behavior suggests that sustained research on problem‐oriented policing initiatives that modify places, routine activities, and situations that promote violence could contribute much to the understanding and control of violence. This study evaluates the effects of problem‐oriented policing interventions on urban violent crime problems in Jersey City, New Jersey. Twenty‐four high‐activity, violent crime places were matched into 12 pairs and one member of each pair was allocated to treatment conditions in a randomized block field experiment. The results of the impact evaluation support the growing body of research that asserts focused police efforts can reduce crime and disorder at problem places without causing crime problems to displace to surrounding areas.
THE LIMITED ROLE OF CHANGING AGE STRUCTURE IN EXPLAINING AGGREGATE CRIME RATES*
Authors: Levitt Steven D.
Published: March 2006

Changes in the age structure are shown to have a limited impact on aggregate crime rates. Even the dramatic transformation of the age distribution accompanying the baby boom shifted crime rates by no more than 1 % per year. Projected changes in the age distribution between 1995 and 2010 will lead to slight declines in per capita crime rates. These results are at odds with recent predictions of an impending demographically driven crime wave. Such predictions have focused exclusively on a rise in juvenile crime and ignored the offsetting decreases among adults.
ON THE USE OF PANEL RESEARCH DESIGNS AND RANDOM EFFECTS MODELS TO INVESTIGATE STATIC AND DYNAMIC THEORIES OF CRIMINAL OFFENDING
Authors: BRAME ROBERT , BUSHWAY SHAWN , PATERNOSTER RAYMOND
Published: March 2006

There is a long‐standing debate in criminology about the relative impact of static versus dynamic factors on criminal behavior. Researchers interested in estimating the impact of dynamic factors like prior offending or association with delinquent peers on criminal offending must control for static factors like intelligence, family background, or self‐control, which could plausibly be correlated with criminal offending and the dynamic factor itself. Unfortunately, as a practical matter, it is not possible to observe all of these static factors. Statisticians and econometricians have shown that it is possible to identify the collective effect of static factors even though they cannot be observed. To achieve this objective, however, it is necessary to account for stable, unobserved individual characteristics through the use of “fixed‐effect” or “random‐effect” estimation. Criminologists often use random‐effect estimators in these situations. We describe some of the assumptions that are necessary to develop valid inferences when time‐varying covariates are used. Then, we use simulation evidence and an empirical application to show that bias can result when they are violated.
SELECTIVE INCAPACITATION AND THE PROBLEM OF PREDICTION*
Authors: AUERHAHN KATHLEEN
Published: March 2006

Recent innovations in sentencing policy across the United States reveal a renewed interest in the idea of selective incapacitation of criminal offenders. This is perhaps most evident in the proliferation of “Three Strikes and You're Out” habitual‐offender statutes across the nation. Although the term was first introduced by David Greenberg in 1975, Peter Greenwood and Allan Abrahamse's eponymous 1982 Rand report represents the most fully articulated plan for implementing such a strategy. The report's release stimulated much discussion, because of the AUTHOR'S claims that selective incapacitation could simultaneously reduce crime rates and prison populations. Ethical problems inherent in such proposals as well as methodological inconsistencies in the original research warrant a reexamination of the proposal and of the empirical basis for the conclusions offered therein. Greenwood and Abrahamse's original research is replicated with a representative sample of California state prison inmates (N = 2, 188) in light of these limitations, with specific focus on the methodological issues concerning the construction of the predictive scale. The selective incapacitation scheme advocated by Greenwood and Abrahamse performs extremely poorly in terms of both reliability and validity, thus precluding the implementation of such schemes. The article contains a discussion of other, more ethically acceptable uses of an instrument that identifies “high‐rate” or “dangerous” offenders. In conclusion, some observations on the limitations of incarceration‐based strategies of crime control are offered.
COLLECTIVE ACTION IN PRISONS: PROTESTS, DISTURBANCES, AND RIOTS*
Authors: USEEM BERT , REISIG MICHAEL D.
Published: March 2006

This study assesses competing explanations of inmate collective action using data from a nationwide sample of 317 adult maximum‐and medium‐security state prisons. Most previous studies have relied on data from only those prisons that have experienced riots. Hence, the conditions thought to cause collective outbursts may be equally present in prisons that did not experience such action. The current design allows for a comparison of riot and nonriot prisons. Additionally, this study examines the forces that generate other forms of collective action in prison, such as minor disturbances and inmate work stoppages. The results show that the variables under the administrative‐control theory heading, but not the inmate‐balance theory heading, help account for these events. Some consideration is given to the possibility that these two theories are complementary explanations.
TESTING CONTROL THEORY AND DIFFERENTIAL ASSOCIATION: A REANALYSIS OF THE RICHMOND YOUTH PROJECT DATA*
Authors: COSTELLO BARBARA J. , VOWELL PAUL R.
Published: March 2006

In what has become a classic work in the field, Matsueda (1982) tested control theory against differential association theory using Hirschi's (1969) Richmond Youth Project data. Matsueda found that measures of “definitions favorable to law violation” entirely mediated the effect of his social control measures and friends' delinquency, and concluded that differential association theory was supported over control theory. We note several problems with Matsueda's specification of control theory, and we reanalyze the Richmond data including measures of commitment to conventional goals and several attachment to parents variables that Matsueda excluded. We also propose and test a new method of measuring the social bond, conceptualizing the social bond as a second‐order latent construct. In contrast with Matsueda's findings, we find that the social bond and friends' delinquency retain important direct effects on delinquency, and that these effects are greater than those of definitions. Thus, our results are more supportive of control theory than differential association theory.
FEMALE AND MALE HOMICIDE VICTIMIZATION RATES: COMPARING TRENDS AND REGRESSORS*
Authors: MARVELL THOMAS B. , MOODY CARLISLE E.
Published: March 2006

This study compares national female and male homicide victimization rates (HVRs) during 1930–1995. The trends are almost the same, even when separated by race, in spite of large gender differences in HVR levels. When regressing female and male HVRs on demographic, economic, social control, and other variables, the coefficients differ between the sexes only to the extent expected by chance. The important predictors relate to offenders and are independent of the type of victim; the incapacitation impact of prison populations is especially strong for all HVRs. This is consistent with others' findings that men who murder women, and even those who commit sexual and partner assaults, have criminal records nearly as bad as offenders generally. These findings have implications for several broader topics: the usefulness of data dis‐aggregation, the usefulness of crime situation theories, the reasons for declining homicide rates, and strategies for reducing violence against women.
THE EFFECT OF CRIMINAL VICTIMIZATION ON A HOUSEHOLD'S MOVING DECISION*
Authors: DUGAN LAURA
Published: March 2006

Only a small body of research addresses the impact of criminal victimization on moving (Skogan, 1990; Taub et al. 1984). Knowledge of this under‐researched relationship is important for three reasons. First, moving is costly to the victim both in monetary and psychological terms. Second, if a victimization‐mobility relationship exists, then it may partially explain why people migrate to suburban areas from cities. Third, because residential mobility reduces social control that, in turn, potentially results in more crime, evidence that criminal victimization leads to more mobility may help explain a cycle that perpetuates disorder and neighborhood decline (Bursik and Grasmick, 1993; Horwitz, 1990; Miethe and Meier, 1994; Skogan, 1990; Skogan and Maxfield, 1981). This study uses a longitudinal version of the National Crime Survey that includes 22, 375 households to test the hypothesis that criminal victimization is associated with an increased probability that a household moves.
A CROSS‐CULTURAL EXAMINATION OF THE LINK BETWEEN CORPORAL PUNISHMENT AND ADOLESCENT ANTISOCIAL BEHAVIOR*
Authors: SIMONS RONALD L. , WU CHYI‐IN , LIN KUEI‐HSIU , GORDON LESLIE , CONGER RAND D.
Published: March 2006

Several studies with older children have reported a positive relationship between parental use of corporal punishment and child conduct problems. This has lead some social scientists to conclude that physical discipline fosters antisocial behavior. In an attempt to avoid the methodological difficulties that have plagued past research on this issue, the present study used a proportional measure of corporal punishment, controlled for earlier behavior problems and other dimensions of parenting, and tested for interaction and curvilinear effects. The analyses were performed using a sample of Iowa families that displayed moderate use of corporal punishment and a Taiwanese sample that demonstrated more frequent and severe use of physical discipline, especially by fathers. For both samples, level of parental warmth/control (i.e., support, monitoring, and inductive reasoning) was the strongest predictor of adolescent conduct problems. There was little evidence of a relationship between corporal punishment and conduct problems for the Iowa sample. For the Taiwanese families, corporal punishment was unrelated to conduct problems when mothers were high on warmth/control, but positively associated with conduct problems when they were low on warmtwcontrol, An interaction between corporal punishment and warmth/Wcontro1 was found for Taiwanese fathers as well. For these fathers, there was also evidence of a curvilinear relationship, with the association between corporal punishment and conduct problems becoming much stronger at extreme levels of corporal punishment. Overall, the results are consistent with the hypothesis that it is when parents engage in severe forms of corporal punishment, or administer physical discipline in the absence of parental warmth and involvement, that children feel angry and unjustly treated, defy parental authority, and engage in antisocial behavior.
INFORMAL SURVEILLANCE AND STREET CRIME: A COMPLEX RELATIONSHIP*
Authors: BELLAIR PAUL E.
Published: March 2006

The systemic crime model predicts that informal surveillance of space reduces street crime. Conversely, community decline theory posits that street crime reduces informal surveillance by increasing residents' perception of risk and fear. Moreover, functions of crime theory suggests that some types of crime may increase surveillance. Using data for 100 urban neighborhoods, the analysis examines these predictions and disentangles reciprocal effects. Baseline recursive equations indicate that informal surveillance is inversely associated with robbery/stranger assault, and that robbery/stranger assault is inversely associated with informal surveillance. In contrast, burglary rates are not affected by informal surveillance, but burglary has a positive effect on surveillance when robbery/stranger assault is controlled. Simultaneous equations indicate that robbery/stranger assault has a moderately strong inverse effect on informal surveillance, and that it is mediated by residents' perceptions of risk. When risk perception is controlled, informal surveillance has an inverse effect on robbery/stranger assault. The latter analysis also indicates that burglary increases surveillance, suggesting that some types of crime serve positive functions. The results, therefore, lend support to systemic, community decline, and functions of crime theory, and they suggest that the relationship between informal surveillance and crime is complex. Implications for community crime research are discussed.
MANAGING RETALIATION: DRUG ROBBERY AND INFORMAL SANCTION THREATS*
Authors: JACOBS BRUCE A. , TOPALLI VOLKAN , WRIGHT RICHARD
Published: March 2006

The notion that informal sanction threats influence criminal decision‐making is perhaps the most important contribution to neoclassical theory in the past 15 years. Notably absent from this contribution is an examination of the ways in which the risk of victim retaliation—arguably, the ultimate informal sanction—mediates the process. The present article addresses this gap, examining how active drug robbers (individuals who take money and drugs from dealers by force or threat of force) perceive and respond to the risk of victim retaliation in real‐life settings and circumstances. The data's theoretical implications for deterrence and violence contagions are explored. Data were drawn from in‐depth interviews with 25 currently active drug robbers recruited from the streets of St. Louis, Missouri.
PARTNER ABUSE AND GENERAL CRIME: HOW ARE THEY THE SAME? HOW ARE THEY DIFFERENT?*
Authors: MOFFITT TERRIE E. , KRUEGER ROBERT F. , CASPI AVSHALOM , FAGAN JEFF
Published: March 2006

Both partner abuse and general crime violate the rights and safety of victims. But are these phenomena the same or are they distinct, demanding their own research and intervention specialties? Are per‐ sons who abuse their partners the same people who commit other criminal behavior? Do partner abuse and general crime share the same correlates? We investigated these questions in a birth cohort of over 800 young adults, by testing whether a personality model known to predict general crime would also predict partner abuse. Personality data were gathered at age 18, and self‐reported partner abuse and general criminal offending were measured at age 21. Results from modeling latent constructs showed that partner abuse and general crime represent different constructs that are moderately related; they are not merely two expressions of the same underlying antisocial propensity. Group comparisons showed many, but not all, partner abusers also engaged in violence against nonintimates. Personality analyses showed that partner abuse and general crime shared a strong propensity from a trait called Negative Emotionality. However, crime was related to weak Constraint (low self‐control), but partner abuse was not. All findings applied to women as well as to men, suggesting that women's partner abuse may be motivated by the same intra‐personal features that motivate men's abuse. The results are consistent with theoretical and applied arguments about the “uniqueness” of partner violence relative to other crime and violence.
CHILDHOOD AND ADOLESCENT PREDICTORS OF PHYSICAL ASSAULT: A PROSPECTIVE LONGITUDINAL STUDY*
Authors: WOODWARD LIANNE J. , FERGUSSON DAVID M.
Published: March 2006

Data gathered over the course of an 18‐year prospective longitudinal study of more than 1,000 New Zealand children was used to examine the contextual, lifestyle, and childhood risk factors associated with young people's exposure to physical assault in late adolescence. Twenty‐three percent of males compared with 14% of females reported an assault between the ages of 16 and 18 years. However, although the prevalence and nature of young people's physical assault experiences differed in gender specific ways, the concurrent and antecedent risk factors that placed males and females at risk of physical assault were similar. The major predictors of physical assault during late adolescence included childhood measures of behavioral disturbance and parental dysfunction, in addition to measures of adolescent participation in a delinquent lifestyle, such as violent offending, status offending, and the misuse of alcohol. These findings support previous research suggesting a strong link between juvenile delinquency and victimization risk, and they contribute to an understanding of the role of gender and childhood experiences in predicting later risk of physical assault.
PERCEIVED SANCTION THREATS, GENDER, AND CRIME: A TEST AND ELABORATION OF POWER‐CONTROL THEORY*
Authors: BLACKWELL BRENDA SIMS
Published: March 2006

This research addresses the need to incorporate the perceived threats of informal sanctions, specifically, shame and embarrassment, into the power‐control model. First, the possibility that gender differences exist in the perceived threats of shame and embarrassment, as well as legal sanctions, and that these differences vary between more patriarchal and less patriarachal households of origin is explored. Second, the relative impact of the informal sanction threat variables compared with the formal legal sanctions is ascertained. Results indicate that significant gender differences exist in the perceived threats of embarrassment and formal sanctions, and that these differences vary by household of origin type. In addition, among those individuals reared in more patriarachal households, the perceived threat of shame accounts for a significant proportion of the gender‐crime relationship.
FURTHERING THE INTEGRATION OF ROUTINE ACTIVITY AND SOCIAL DISORGANIZATION THEORIES: SMALL UNITS OF ANALYSIS AND THE STUDY OF STREET ROBBERY AS A DIFFUSION PROCESS
Authors: SMITH WILLIAM R. , FRAZEE SHARON GLAVE , DAVISON ELIZABETH L.
Published: March 2006

Attempts to integrate the two predominant spatial theories of crime, social disorganization and routine activity theories, may benefit from examining empirical relationships at units of analysis smaller than the relatively large units characteristic of most ecological research (cities, SMSAs, census tracts, multiple city blocks). Small units of analysis, specifically, face blocks (both sides of a city block between two intersections) are analyzed in a study of street robbery within a medium‐size southeastern U.S. city. Models of street robbery and street‐robbery “potential” suggest a crime diffusion process. Several interaction effects between variables of social disorganization and routine activity theory are found, which may form the basis in future research for successful theoretical integration.
ADOLESCENT VICTIMIZATION AND INCOME DEFICITS IN ADULTHOOD: RETHINKING THE COSTS OF CRIMINAL VIOLENCE FROM A LIFE‐COURSE PERSPECTIVE*
Authors: MACMILLAN ROSS
Published: March 2006

Estimating the financial costs of criminal violence to victims is important for assessing both the impact of crime on individuals and evaluating the feasibility and utility of various crime prevention, crime control, and criminal justice policies. Traditionally, such estimates focus on short‐term costs: costs connected to the victimization event itself and costs incurred during the immediate aftermath. Although the possibility of more long‐term costs is acknowledged, research has yet to articulate how and to what extent criminal violence impacts socioeconomic fortunes. In this article, I propose a life‐course model for estimating the long‐term costs of violent victimization. Using prospective, longitudinal data from a national sample of American adolescents, and retrospective data from a national sample of Canadians, I use this conceptual model to estimate income losses over the life cycle associated with violent victimization. Three significant results are reported. First, income losses from violent victimization are age‐graded, with the greatest costs occurring for victimization experienced in adolescence. Second, criminal violence experienced in adolescence appears to influence later earnings by disrupting processes of educational and occupational attainment. Third, the total costs of criminal violence over the life course for adolescents are considerable in comparison to estimates provided in previous research. The policy implications of these findings are discussed.
PATTERNS IN CRIMINAL ACHIEVEMENT: WILSON AND ABRAHAMSE REVISITED
Authors: TREMBLAY PIERRE , MORSELLI CARLO
Published: March 2006

Even though intense cultural pressures for monetary success and an institutional social structure dominated by the economy are viewed in anomie theory as stimulating criminal motivations and accounting for criminal behavior with an instrumental character, patterns in criminal earnings have not attracted much scholarly and empirical attention. Wilson and Abrahamse's (1992) analysis of Rand's second inmate survey concluded that most inmates interviewed during the survey had overestimated their monthly criminal earnings in an effort to rationalize their poor criminal performances. In this paper, we conduct, using Rand's first survey, a reanalysis of inmates' self‐reported monthly earnings. We conclude that meaningful patterns in criminal achievements easily emerge when allowed to do so. These patterns offer a telling story about differential criminal opportunities. Wilson and Abrahamse's emphasis on temporal inconsistency and response bias (boosting past benefits of crime) misrepresents the facts of that story and misjudges those persons agreeing to tell it. It is concluded that for a “criminal subculture” to have any persuasive or binding effect, its participants must be reasonably assured that their chances of making “crime pay” are not so remote as to become unattainable.
FEAR, TV NEWS, AND THE REALITY OF CRIME*
Authors: CHIRICOS TED , PADGETT KATHY , GERTZ MARC
Published: March 2006

Data from a 1997 survey of 2, 250 Florida residents are used to assess whether and how the reality of crime influences the relationship between watching TV news and fear of crime. Local crime rates, victim experience, and perceived realism of crime news operationalize the reality of crime and are included in ordinary least squares (OLS) estimates of the TV news and fear of crime relationship. These measures of reality are also used as contexts for disaggregating the analysis. Local and national news are related to fear of crime independent of the effects of the reality of crime and other controls. Local news effects are stronger, especially for people who live in high crime places or have recent victim experience. This contextual pattern of findings is consistent with a conclusion that TV news is most influential when it resonates the experience or crime reality of respondents.
EXAMINING THE “CRIMINAL CAREERS” OF PROSTITUTES WITHIN THE NEXUS OF DRUG USE, DRUG SELLING, AND OTHER ILLICIT ACTIVITIES*
Authors: MAXWELL SHEILA ROYO , MAXWELL CHRISTOPHER D.
Published: March 2006

This paper examines the co‐occurrence of prostitution, drug use, drug selling, and involvement in non‐drug crimes among women who have used serious drugs (e.g., crack, heroin). Existing perspectives on the drug use‐prostitution nexus are re‐examined using three dimensions of the criminal career paradigm: prevalence, lambda, and age of onset. Results show that approximately one‐half of the women who reported regular drug use never prostituted, and that, except for use of crack cocaine, use of other drugs was unrelated to the prevalence, frequency, or age of onset into prostitution. The results also show that committing property crime was associated with an increased prevalence and early onset into prostitution, while selling drugs coincided with a decreased prevalence and delayed onset into prostitution.
JUVENILE INVOLVEMENT IN OCCUPATIONAL DELINQUENCY*
Authors: WRIGHT JOHN PAUL , CULLEN FRANCIS T.
Published: March 2006

Although concern with white‐collar crime has grown considerably in recent years, little research has been undertaken on the workplace misconduct of juveniles. This omission is noteworthy because of the extensive involvement of youths in the labor market. Accordingly, based on a sample of high school seniors, we explored the determinants of youths' occupational delinquency. The analysis revealed that work‐related delinquency is affected both by underlying criminal propensities and by contact with delinquent coworkers on the job. It also appears that delinquent youths are selected into negative work environments in which they come into contact with fellow delinquents—an interaction effect that amplifies their occupational delinquency. Finally, the data suggest that associating with delinquent coworkers affects misbehavior not only within, but also outside the workplace. The theoretical implications of these findings are explored.
ON THE ASSOCIATION AMONG SELF‐CONTROL, CRIME, AND ANALOGOUS BEHAVIORS
Authors: PATERNOSTER RAYMOND , BRAME ROBERT
Published: March 2006

In a paper previously published in Criminology (Paternoster and Brame, 1998), we used data from the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development to investigate the association between criminal activity and a set of so‐called “analogous behaviors” (i.e., excessive drinking, smoking, gambling, involvement in accidents, etc.). Our reading of Gottfredson and Hirschi's (1990) self‐control theory led us to hypothesize that both of these outcomes should depend on self‐control. It seemed to us that the implication of this position is that self‐control should explain any association that exists between involvement in criminal activity and involvement in analogous behaviors. Our analysis suggested that the association between criminal activity and analogous behaviors persisted even after conditioning on our measure of self‐control. We drew the qualified conclusion that this result constitutes negative evidence for Gottfredson and Hirschi's self‐control theory. In this paper, we reexamine the analytic framework on which we relied in our earlier work.
THEORIZING SANCTIONING IN A CRIMINALIZED JUVENILE COURT*
Authors: MEARS DANIEL P. , FIELD SAMUEL H.
Published: March 2006

Recent juvenile justice reforms have produced increasingly complex and criminal‐like approaches to sanctioning youths, yet research to date has not examined the full range of newly available sentencing options nor systematically drawn on theories of adult sentencing. The present study addresses these issues by developing competing hypotheses about the effects of legal, extralegal, and processing factors, as well as sentencing options, in a highly proceduralized and criminalized juvenile court in Texas. These hypotheses are then tested using quantitative and qualitative data. The results are largely consistent with derived expectations and do not support arguments that increased proceduralization and criminalization of juvenile courts will eliminate consideration of age, gender, or race/ethnicity in sentencing decisions.
INEQUALITY, WELFARE STATE, AND HOMICIDE: FURTHER SUPPORT FOR THE INSTITUTIONAL ANOMIE THEORY*
Authors: SAVOLAINEN JUKKA
Published: March 2006

Building directly on key insights from two prior tests of the institutional anomie theory, we predict that the positive effect of economic inequality on the level of lethal violence is limited to nations characterized by relatively weak collective institutions of social protection. This hypothesis is tested with two complementary cross‐national data sets. Both settings reveal a negative interaction effect between economic inequality and the strength of the welfare state. Nations that protect their citizens from the vicissitudes of market forces appear to be immune to the homicidal effects of economic inequality. This finding provides critical support for the institutional anomie theory.
ONSET AGE, PERSISTENCE, AND OFFENDING VERSATILITY: COMPARISONS ACROSS GENDER*
Authors: MAZEROLLE PAUL , BRAME ROBERT , PATERNOSTER RAY , PIQUERO ALEX , DEAN CHARLES
Published: March 2006

Offending specialization has received considerable attention in past research on criminal careers. Relatively little attention has been given to examining the relationships between various sub‐group differences and the extent to which individuals tend toward specialization or versatility in their criminal careers. In the present analysis, we examine hypotheses derived from Moffitt's recent developmental theory that bear directly on offending specialization. Our analysis examines direct relationships between gender, onset age, persistence and offending specialization as well as the interaction of these influences and offending specialization. Our findings reveal results that are both consistent and inconsistent with Moffitt's dual taxonomy of offending behavior.
SELF‐REPORTED GANG INVOLVEMENT AND OFFICIALLY RECORDED DELINQUENCY*
Authors: CURRY G. DAVID
Published: March 2006

Field studies and survey research have sometimes been critical of the utility of law enforcement data on gang activity. Survey information on gang involvement in early adolescence is linked to delinquent offending as recorded by the Chicago Police Department over a five‐year period. Self‐reported gang involvement is found to be a significant correlate of the probability of officially recorded delinquency even when ethnicity, prior self‐reported offending, and prior officially recorded offending are controlled. The conclusion is that while survey and official records sources of data do not perfectly coincide, together they can enhance the view of gang involvement.
SUBSTANCE USE‐INDUCED DIMINUTION OF VIOLENCE: A COUNTERVAILING EFFECT IN LONGITUDINAL PERSPECTIVE*
Authors: KAPLAN HOWARD B. , TOLLE GLEN C. , YOSHIDA TAKUJI
Published: March 2006

Although the literature supports a positive association between substance use and violence, scattered reports suggest a basis for predicting an inverse relationship. Using panel data (N = 2, 222) from subjects tested during early adolescence and three years later, we estimate structural equation models that specify within‐wave relationships between substance use and violence constructs, stability of these constructs over time, and lagged effects of each construct on the other. As hypothesized, net of the within‐wave positive relationships, substance use was inversely related to later violence. The findings support theoretical orientations that accommodate motivation to use substances to assuage distressful self‐feelings (including those that instigate violence).
EXTENDING SOCIAL DISORGANIZATION THEORY: MODELING THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN COHESION, DISORDER, AND FEAR*
Authors: MARKOWITZ FRED E. , BELLAIR PAUL E. , LISKA ALLEN E. , LIU JIANHONG
Published: March 2006

In this study, we build on recent social disorganization research, estimating models of the relationships between disorder, burglary, cohesion, and fear of crime using a sample of neighborhoods from three waves of the British Crime Survey. The results indicate that disorder has an indirect effect on burglary through fear and neighborhood cohesion. Although cohesion reduces disorder, nonrecursive models show that disorder also reduces cohesion. Part of the effect of disorder on cohesion is mediated by fear. Similar results are obtained in nonrecursive burglary models. Together, the results suggest a feedback loop in which decreases in neighborhood cohesion increase crime and disorder, increasing fear, in turn, further decreasing cohesion.
THE EFFECTS OF SOCIAL TIES ON CRIME VARY BY CRIMINAL PROPENSITY: A LIFE‐COURSE MODEL OF INTERDEPENDENCE*
Authors: WRIGHT BRADLEY R. ENTNER , CASPI AVSHALOM , MOFFITT TERRIE E. , SILVA PHIL A.
Published: March 2006

Previous studies have explained the transition from criminal propensity in youth to criminal behavior in adulthood with hypotheses of enduring criminal propensity, unique social causation, and cumulative social disadvantage. In this article we develop an additional hypothesis derived from the life‐course concept of interdependence: The effects of social ties on crime vary as a function of individuals' propsensity for crime. We tested these four hypotheses with data from the Dunedin Study. In support of life‐course interdependence, prosocial ties, such as education, employment, family ties, and partnerships, deterred crime, and antisocial ties, such as delinquent peers, promoted crime, most strongly among low self‐control individuals. Our findings bear implications for theories and policies of crime.
STABILITY AND CHANGE IN ANTISOCIAL BEHAVIOR: THE TRANSITION FROM ADOLESCENCE TO EARLY ADULTHOOD*
Authors: CERNKOVICH STEPHEN A. , GIORDANO PEGGY C.
Published: March 2006

This longitudinal research, based on two samples of respondents who were differentially involved in delinquency as teenagers, identifies latent trait and life‐course correlates of the persistence of antisocial behavior into young adulthood. The data show that prior delinquency is a stable predictor among respondents in both our household and institutional samples. However, although social bonding has a substantial impact on continued criminality among the household respondents, its influence is minimal among those who were previously institutionalized. The data suggest that the bonding levels and antisocial behavior of serious offenders are more resistant to change than are those of more typical and less serious offenders.
THE IMPACT OF SEX COMPOSITION ON GANGS AND GANG MEMBER DELINQUENCY*
Authors: PETERSON DANA , MILLER JODY , ESBENSEN FINN‐AAGE
Published: March 2006

Sociology of organizations scholars have long recognized sex and gender as key features shaping interactional dynamics within groups, and several recent qualitative studies suggest that sex composition of gangs helps shape the gang experience for both boys and girls. Quantitatively, we add to this scant literature by testing competing hypotheses from the theories of Kanter, Blau, and Blalock, and examining whether youth gangs' sex composition influences members' characterizations of their gangs and their individual participation in delinquency. Our findings suggest that sex composition, independent of sex itself, is important in shaping the norms and activities of gangs and their members.