When and Why do Plants Comply? Paper Mills in the 1980s*

This paper uses census data for 116 pulp and paper mills over the period 1979–1990 to examine the determinants of compliance with air pollution regulations. Several plant characteristics are significant: large plants, old plants, and pulp mills comply less frequently, as do plants with water pollution or OSHA violations, but firm characteristics generally are not significant. Enforcement activity increases compliance, but in a heterogeneous way: pulp mills are less sensitive to inspections, while plants owned by larger firms are less sensitive to inspections and more sensitive to “other” enforcement actions, consistent with the authors’ expectations and prior research results.     

SELF‐CONTROL THROUGH EMERGING ADULTHOOD: INSTABILITY,MULTIDIMENSIONALITY, AND CRIMINOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE

This study assesses self‐control theory's stability postulate. We advance research on self‐control stability in three ways. First, we extend the study of stability beyond high school, estimating GBTMs of self‐control from ages 10 to 25. Second, drawing on advances in developmental psychology and social neuroscience, especially the dual systems model of risk taking, we investigate whether two distinct personality traits—impulsivity and sensation seeking—often conflated in measures of self‐control, exhibit divergent developmental patterns. Finding that they do, we estimate multitrajectory models to identify latent classes of co‐occurring developmental patterns. We supplement GBTM stability analyses with hierarchical linear models and reliable variance estimates. Lastly, using fixed effects models, we explore whether the observed within‐individual changes are associated with changes in crime net of overall age trends. These ideas are tested using five waves of data from the Family and Community Health Study. Results suggest that self‐control is unstable, that distinct patterns of development exist for impulsivity and sensation seeking, and that these changes are uniquely consequential for crime. We conclude by comparing our findings with extant research and discussing the implications for self‐control theory.     

THE VICTIM–OFFENDER OVERLAP IN CONTEXT: EXAMINING THE ROLE OF NEIGHBORHOOD STREET CULTURE*

Although numerous studies have found a strong relationship between offending and victimization risk, the etiology of this relationship is not well understood. Largely absent from this research is an explicit focus on neighborhood processes. However, theoretical work found in the subculture of violence literature implies that neighborhood street culture may help to account for the etiology of this phenomenon. Specifically, we should expect the magnitude of the victim–offender overlap to vary closely with neighborhood‐based violent conduct norms. This research uses waves 1 and 2 of the Family and Community Health Study (FACHS) to test the empirical validity of these notions. Our results show that the victim–offender overlap is not generalizeable across neighborhood contexts; in fact, it is especially strong in neighborhoods where the street culture predominates, whereas it is significantly weaker in areas where this culture is less prominent. These results indicate that neighborhood‐level cultural processes help to explain the victim–offender overlap, and they may cause this phenomenon to be context specific.     

RACIAL DISCRIMINATION,RACIAL SOCIALIZATION,AND CRIME OVER TIME: A SOCIAL SCHEMATIC THEORY MODEL

Recent studies evince that interpersonal racial discrimination (IRD) increases the risk of crime among African Americans and familial racial socialization fosters resilience to discrimination's criminogenic effects. Yet, studies have focused on the short‐term effects of IRD and racial socialization largely among adolescents. In this study, we seek to advance knowledge by elucidating how racialized experiences—in interactions and socialization—influence crime for African Americans over time. Elaborating Simons and Burt's (2011) social schematic theory, we trace the effects of childhood IRD and familial racial socialization on adult offending through cognitive and social pathways and their interplay. We test this life‐course SST model using data from the FACHS, a multisite study of Black youth and their families from ages 10 to 25. Consistent with the model, analyses reveal that the criminogenic consequences of childhood IRD are mediated cognitively by a criminogenic knowledge structure and socially through the nature of social relationships in concert with ongoing offending and discrimination experiences. Specifically, by increasing criminogenic cognitive schemas, IRD decreases embeddedness in supportive romantic, educational, and employment relations, which influence social schemas and later crime. Consonant with expectations, the findings also indicate that racial socialization provides enduring resilience by both compensating for and buffering discrimination's criminogenic effects.