A comparative analysis of general strain theory

Purpose

Since its introduction in 1992, general strain theory (GST) has garnered much empirical support. The large share of this support, however, derives from studies conducted in the United States. There is little comparative research on GST, particularly research that examines the effect of the same or similar strains on crime across countries. Thus, we know little about the generalizability of GST. This study attempts to fill this gap by testing GST in five different cities across Europe: Bucharest in Romania, Sofia in Bulgaria, Riga in Latvia, Kaunas in Lithuania and Reykjavik in Iceland.

Methods

We examine the relationship between five strain measures and violent- and property crime among samples of adolescents in each city using regression techniques.

Results

The data are generally supportive of GST, with most of the strains having significant associations with property and violent crime in all or most of the cities.

Conclusion

GST is generalizable to a range of European cities. Implications and examples for future comparative research on GST are discussed.     

Foster youth and crime: Employing general strain theory to promote understanding

Purpose

Despite the growing research evidence into vulnerability, disadvantage, and poor outcomes for young people leaving foster care, relatively little attention has been paid to our understanding of criminal engagement. The present study contributes to our understanding of this process by drawing on general strain theory (GST) to examine how specific forms of strain may lead to crime among foster youth.

Methods

Data from a national study of post-care foster youth in England are examined using robust logistic regression analysis, and a thematic analysis of qualitative interviews. Logistic regression was applied to conduct a simultaneous analysis of main and interaction effects of strains and conditioning variables on crime involvement among foster youth. Thematic analysis was utilised to explore themes for explaining the quantitative findings.

Results

Strains such as unemployment, school exclusion, length of time in care and instability of placement were significant predictors for involvement in criminal activity among foster youth. Conditioning factors, namely self-esteem and life skills acquired prior to leaving care, tend to mediate the relationship between these strains and criminal involvement. In-depth qualitative evidence further reinforced the effects of strains and conditional nature of the strains-crime relationship among foster youth.

Conclusions

The findings demonstrate the utility of employing GST in studies of foster youth, and they suggest implications for youth services and other foster youth programmes.     

Estimating the probability of local crime clusters: The impact of immediate spatial neighbors

Purpose

To investigate the importance of immediate spatial neighbors when investigating local crime patterns.

Methods

Local indicators of spatial association are used to identify local crime clusters. The classification scheme of these local crime clusters is then modeled in a multinomial logistic regression.

Results

The results show that immediate spatial neighbors are important for understanding local crime patterns. Though (positive) spatial autocorrelation has long been known to be present with crime data, this analysis suggests that negative spatial autocorrelation (if present) has a significantly different implication. Generally speaking, when predicting a local crime cluster type, the immediate spatial neighbors are more important for correct prediction. As such, a low local crime area that is surrounded by high crime areas presents itself as a high crime area in the regression results.

Conclusions

Therefore, efforts to understand the criminal nature of an area must not consider that area in isolation.     

General strain and non-strain theories: A study of crime in emerging adulthood

Purpose

Despite continued increase in research on general strain theory (GST), previous studies on the relationship between GST and other criminological theories has been limited. To fill this gap in GST research, the present study aims to examine whether non-strain variables of social bonding theory, social learning theory, and self-control theory, as well as negative emotions mediate and moderate the effects of strain on crime and drug use.

Methods

Ordinary least squares regressions were applied to conduct a simultaneous analysis of mediation and moderation effects, using multiple waves of the restricted-use data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health).

Results

The non-strain variables of social bonds and low self-control, but not deviant peer association, as well as trait anger and state depression/anxiety mediate the effects of strain on crime and drug use, but hypotheses about the moderating effects of these variables receive less support.

Conclusions

The central claims of GST need to be expanded to include non-emotive mediators of the effects of strain on crime, given that negative emotions are not expected to fully mediate the criminogenic effects of strain.     

GENERAL STRAIN THEORY, PERSISTENCE, AND DESISTANCE AMONG YOUNG ADULT MALES

Purpose

Despite the surge in scholarly activity investigating the criminal career, relatively less attention has been devoted to the issue of criminal desistance versus persistence (until recently). The present study contributed to our understanding of this process by exploring the suitability of General Strain Theory (GST) for predicting changes in criminal activity across time.

Methods

Data from a longitudinal study of males in South Florida are examined using robust regression analyses.

Results

The core GST relationship, that changes in strain should predict changes in criminal activity, was supported, even after controlling for important adult social roles such as marriage, labor force participation, and education. While no support for the proposition that changes in self-esteem and social support moderate the strain-criminal desistance association was evinced, evidence was found that angry disposition, a measure of negative emotionality, moderated the association between change in chronic stressors and change in criminal activity.

Conclusions

While exploratory in nature, these findings demonstrate the utility of employing GST principles in studies of criminal desistance.     

Physical health and crime among low-income urban women: An application of general strain theory

Purpose

Although studies of General Strain Theory (GST) typically include measures of physical health in multi-item indices of strain, no work has investigated the independent influence of physical health on criminal offending. The current research explores the relationship between physical health and criminal offending among low-income women living in disadvantaged neighborhoods.

Methods

Using data from the Welfare, Children, and Families (WCF) project, criminal behavior is predicted over two years with measures of physical health, depression, anxiety, competing strain, and relevant background factors.

Results

Poorer physical health at baseline and declines in physical health increase the odds of offending onset among previous non-offenders and reduce the odds of decreased offending among previous offenders. In offending onset models, higher levels of anxiety and depression at baseline and increases in these symptoms partially mediate the effect of poorer baseline health and fully mediate the effect of the loss of physical health. In decreased offending models, increases in anxiety and depression fully mediate the effect of poorer baseline health and partially mediate the effect of the loss of physical health.

Conclusions

The data suggest that poor health and declines in physical health influence both offending onset and offending escalation directly and indirectly through increases in anxiety and depression.     

Perceived injustice and delinquency: A test of general strain theory

Purpose

While a growing body of empirical literature supports many key predictions of General Strain Theory (GST), the subjective perception of injustice remains a theoretically important but empirically under-researched type of strain. The present study therefore examines the relations among perceived injustice, anger, and rule-violation.

Methods

Using a sample of middle- and high-school students from 12 schools in Southern New Hampshire, the present study tests GST via a series of OLS, negative binomial, and structural equation analyses using a more precise measure of perceived injustice than prior work and extensive statistical controls for such variables as self-control, differential association, attitudes toward delinquency, and alternative strain measures in a longitudinal context.

Results

Results yield strong support for the notions that perceived injustice promotes delinquency and that this relationship is mediated by situational anger.

Conclusions

Perceived injustice appears to be an important type of strain that should be incorporated into future research and addressed by future delinquency prevention efforts.     

The reliability of police employee counts: Comparing FBI and ICMA data, 1954-2008

Researchers commonly use secondary data counts of police employees from police agencies. There has been some concern with using such data, yet there have been no published systematic assessments of their reliability.

Purpose

This paper compares the reliability of annual counts of police officers and civilians from the FBI's Police Employees data to those in the International City/County Management Association's (ICMA) Municipal Year Book reported for 38 large city police agencies between 1954 and 2008.

Methods

We use bivariate correlations and visual analyses of line charts to demonstrate the reliability of these two datasets, examining in particular situations in which inaccuracies emerged.

Results

Overall, both data sets record accurate counts of police employees, but there is some evidence of reporting irregularities. These irregularities manifest themselves as either city/agency-specific or temporally-bounded reporting errors.

Conclusions

Although reporting errors are rare in these data, future researchers should consider the potential impact of reporting errors for certain years and agencies.     

Does prison strain lead to prison misbehavior? An application of general strain theory to inmate misconduct

Purpose

This paper applies macro-micro General Strain Theory (GST) to predict prisoner misconduct. It is hypothesized that prison-based strain will adversely affect inmates and increase their misconduct.

Methods

Data from a large southern state are used to examine how environmental strain measured at the prison level influence inmates’ violent misconduct. Analyses will include a group-based trajectory model on monthly counts of violent misconduct for the first three years of incarceration and assess whether the strain of the environment (using a latent measure of prison deprivation as a proxy for environmental strain) distinguishes between trajectories. The analysis will employ finite multilevel mixture modeling with environmental strain as both a within- and between-class predictor, but at the prison level.

Results

Findings suggest that prison strain is positively associated with prison misconduct; however, the magnitude of the effect varies across distinct inmate trajectories.

Conclusions

Theoretical and practical implications are highlighted as are directions for future research.     

Prisoners’ perceptions of correctional officers’ behavior in English and Dutch prisons

Purpose

In light of the mounting research on the “new punitiveness”, an important but largely unanswered question is the extent to which a country's penal policies and punitive sentiments are actually reflected in prisoners’ experiences. The aim of the current study is to examine how prisoners perceive correctional officers’ behavior in English and in Dutch prisons.

Methods

A cross-sectional design was used, in which we conducted semi-structured interviews with 25 Dutch prisoners incarcerated in England and 25 English prisoners incarcerated in the Netherlands. The interview schedule covered a number of topics addressing divergent aspects of life in prison, including staff-prisoner relationships.

Results

In English prisons, despite the ostensible efforts to improve prison life, the attitude is more confrontational, staff-prisoner relationships are more detached, and staff members seem more unresponsive and more inclined to punish. In Dutch prisons, where responsibilization and a market orientation have supposedly replaced rehabilitation, staff is perceived as more helpful and fair, and interactions with Dutch staff are more informal and less authoritarian.

Conclusions

These findings suggest that penal policy and increasingly punitive sentiments in society are not necessarily mirrored in the practice of prisons, and concomitantly, in prisoners’ perceptions of correctional officers’ behavior.     

Civil asset forfeiture, equitable sharing, and policing for profit in the United States

Purpose

Critics of asset forfeiture claim that forfeiture laws create financial incentives that inappropriately influence police behavior. The present study examines the relationship between measures of the financial incentive and legal burdens for civil asset forfeiture on federal equitable sharing payments to local law enforcement to determine whether police behavior is affected by different statutory incentives for forfeiture activity.

Methods

Using LEMAS and DOJ forfeiture data, this study addresses some of the limitations of previous research by using a multi-year average for forfeiture activity, an improved measure of financial incentives for law enforcement, and multiple measures of statutory burdens to law enforcement to determine the impact of forfeiture laws on forfeiture activity.

Results

Consistent with anecdotal reports and limited prior research, findings indicate that agencies in jurisdictions with more restrictive state forfeiture laws receive more proceeds through federal equitable sharing.

Conclusions

Results suggest that state and local law enforcement agencies use federal equitable sharing to circumvent their own state forfeiture laws when state laws are more burdensome or less financially rewarding to these agencies, providing additional evidence that police operations are influenced by financial incentives.     

The Residual Career Patterns of Police Misconduct

Purpose

To explore the extent to which patterns of police misconduct, particularly residual career length (RCL) and residual number of offenses (RNO), change over time in theoretically expected ways, and to determine whether such career features can adequately predict future misconduct when compared to traditional Early Intervention (EI) system criteria.

Methods

This study employs retrospective, longitudinal data gathered for a large cohort of police officers followed for a significant portion of their career and uses personnel complaints as the primary indicator of police misconduct.

Results

Distributions of RCL and RNO are presented according to 4 criteria: year of experience, complaint number, time since the last complaint, and onset of first complaint. There was a decline in RCL and RNO with experience and onset of first complaint. While RCL declined by complaint number, RNO remained steady. This is also true of time since last complaint. Risk scores derived from RCL and RNO were moderately predictive of future misconduct, but fared better than those derived from standard EI system criteria.

Conclusion

EI systems do not adequately predict future misconduct, but there appears to be value in taking a broader view of complaint patterns of officers as a way of increasing predicative validity.     

An uneven playing field: The impact of strain and coping skills on treatment outcomes for juvenile offenders

Purpose

This study examines the experiences of a group of drug-abusing juvenile offenders following their release from a residential treatment facility in order to determine how pre-existing levels of strain and coping skills affect their ability to benefit from the treatment program and avoid recidivism and relapse.

Methods

During an extensive pre-treatment interview, the youths were asked a variety of questions assessing potential sources of strain (including the experience of physical/emotional abuse and intra-familial violence, parental drug use, and physical/emotional health problems) and a variety of coping (cognitive, emotional, physical, social, and spiritual) skills. We hypothesized that pre-existing strain levels would decrease the likelihood of treatment success just as pre-existing coping skills levels would enhance it, but also predicted that the impact of strain on treatment success would be moderated by existing coping skills and that coping skills would have the greatest capacity to affect treatment outcomes among youths with higher levels of pre-treatment strain.

Results

Our findings offered mixed support for our hypotheses, including evidence that some coping skills mitigated the negative impact of strain whereas others seemed to intensify it. Implications of our findings are discussed and directions for future research are suggested.     

Social ecology, individual risk, and recidivism: A multilevel examination of main and moderating influences

Purpose

Despite a longstanding tradition in criminology to consider the impact of neighborhood context on crime-related outcomes, criminologists have largely ignored the influence of social ecology on recidivism until recently. The purpose of the present study was to examine the main and moderating influences of social ecology on recidivism.

Materials and Methods

The present study used hierarchical nonlinear modeling to estimate the effects of concentrated disadvantage, immigrant concentration, and residential stability on recidivism for a sample of offenders released from custody/supervision in 2006 and nested within Iowa counties. We controlled for individual-level risk for recidivism using the Level of Service Inventory-Revised (LSI-R), a validated risk assessment instrument. We also examined whether the relationship between LSI-R score and recidivism varied across counties, and if so, whether this variation can be explained by social structural characteristics.

Results

Results indicate that residential stability was the only contextual variable significantly related to recidivism. The relationship between individual-level risk and recidivism did not vary across contexts.

Conclusions

The findings suggest that the social structural context has limited influence on recidivism, while the LSI-R is a robust predictor of recidivism across contexts. We discuss the implications of our findings for theory, practice, and future research.     

Can financial incentives reduce juvenile confinement levels? An evaluation of the Redeploy Illinois program

Purpose

Assessments of ongoing fiscal restructuring of juvenile justice system processes and the impact such restructuring has on juvenile incarceration rates are limited. When impacts of fiscal restructuring efforts have been assessed, researchers have focused on systemic, macro level changes in incarceration rates but avoided more focused, micro level impacts. This study fills this knowledge gap by examining the recent implementation of the Redeploy Illinois program in two pilot sites. In the Redeploy Illinois program, financial incentives were provided to select counties to develop community based alternatives to incarceration. The goal was to alleviate over reliance on state funded residential facilities for evaluation and confinement purposes.

Methods

Agency data were analyzed using qualitative methods to examine the effects of this change.

Results

Results of this study demonstrated that counties participating in the pilot test of the Redeploy Illinois program were able to reduce their levels of juvenile commitment to the state. Peoria County exceeded their reduction benchmark for all but two years, and St. Clair County well exceed their reduction benchmark for all full calendar years subsequent to implementation.

Conclusions

Findings are consistent with the limited literature exploring fiscal restructuring efforts designed to reduce county levels juvenile commitments.     

Can general strain theory be used to explain recidivism among registered sex offenders?

Purpose

The purpose of the current study was to assess sex offender recidivism in the context of General Strain Theory (GST).

Methods

Surveys were mailed to 3,506 sex offenders with (N = 939) in Nebraska, (N = 1,850) in Kansas and (N = 717) in Montana. Questions related to strain associated with registration and community notification, anger, depression, and criminal behavior were asked. OLS Regression was utilized to predict overall recidivism, as well as sex, violent, drug, and property recidivism.

Results

Findings suggest that GST is supported when analyzing recidivism.

Conclusions

In the context of these findings, policymakers would do well to reexamine the broad use of registration and community notification laws.     

The strains of maternal imprisonment: Importation and deprivation stressors for women and children

Purpose

This study links General Strain Theory, criminal justice models of inmate adaptation, and life course stress models to examine (1) the influence of importation and deprivation strains on maternal health while imprisoned; and (2) the intergenerational consequences of maternal strains for child outcomes.

Methods

Qualitative and quantitative data were gathered from an incarcerated sample of mothers in a Federal prison (n = 120). Qualitative data were used to identify strains in mothers' lives. Multivariate quantitative analyses were also conducted to test the associations of maternal importation and deprivation strains with maternal health problems and child subjective weathering, or a sense of growing up faster than one's peers.

Results

The deprivation strain of a lack of contact with the mother's minor child is positively associated with her mental and physical health problems and children's subjective weathering. Maternal importation strains in the form of childhood traumas also increase mental health problems and subjective weathering.

Conclusions

This study finds that maternal deprivation and importation strains are associated with mother and child adjustment. Reducing strains mothers face while imprisoned may benefit both inmates and families. Furthermore, deprivation strains are influential net of pre-imprisonment stressors.     

Sugar and spice and everything nice? Exploring institutional misconduct among serious and violent female delinquents

Purpose

Despite an emerging body of research on the institutional behavior and adjustment of delinquent males, there exists little information on the incarceration experiences of female delinquents. The present study explored the incidence, prevalence, and determinants of institutional misconduct among a sample of 139 serious and violent delinquent females sentenced to state juvenile incarceration.

Methods

Secondary data analysis was used for the present study. Data utilized were derived from information originally gathered by correctional staff during intake at a state Youth Correctional System (a pseudonym) and during an offender's entire incarceration through on-site diagnostic processes, staff observations, official records, and offender self-reports.

Results

Members of the study sample engaged in roughly 700 incidents of major misconduct and more than 12,000 instances of minor institutional misconduct during their incarceration. Results from negative binomial regression models examining four different types of institutional misconduct revealed that age at commitment, offense type, mental health status, and gang affiliation were related to the expected rate of misconduct, although this varied by misconduct type.

Conclusions

Institutionalization is not necessarily a period of desistance from offending for all delinquent girls. As institutional misconduct may impact post-release recidivism, it is important to identify and intervene with at-risk juveniles during periods of incarceration.     

The relationship between shift work, perceived stress, sleep and health in Swiss police officers

Purpose

This study examined how a specific shift system was associated with stress, sleep and health among police officers. Moreover, this study investigated whether gender moderated the association between shift work and stress, sleep and health. Additional analyses were performed to find out how stress and shift work interact in explaining sleep and health.

Methods

The findings are based on a cross-sectional survey. A written questionnaire was sent to all employees of a local police force. 460 police officers (M = 40.67 years, SD = 9.66; 25.2% females) volunteered to take part in the study. 251 subjects were shift workers (54.6%). Police officers filled in a series of validated instruments assessing stress (TICS), perceived health (SF-12, somatic complaints, health care use) and sleep (ISI, PSQI).

Results

Shift work was associated with increased social stress, work discontent and sleep complaints. In turn, shift workers reported decreased use of primary health care. Moreover, stress was associated with increased sleep complaints and lower scores in perceived health. The interplay between stress and shift work did not produce any significant effects.

Conclusions

Workforce health promotion should make attempts to reduce chronic stress, while occupational health physicians should emphasize the diagnosis of undetected sleep disorders.     

Race group differences in prison victimization experiences

Purpose

To assess differences in victimization risk between African American and white, non-Latino inmates, and to estimate race group differences in the correlates of victimization.

Methods

Random samples totaling 2,403 African Americans and 3,150 whites were drawn from all state prisons in Ohio and Kentucky and all private prisons in Ohio (n = 46). Race-specific bi-level models of physical assaults and property thefts were estimated. Differences between race-specific models in the magnitude of regression coefficients for the same predictors and outcomes were compared.

Results

The odds of victimization by physical assault and by theft were significantly higher among whites compared to African Americans. Race group differences in the magnitude of several inmate level effects (e.g., age, sex, education, family status, officer “legitimacy”, custody score, visitation) were also significant, yet facility effects were similar for both groups.

Conclusions

Assessing differences in the victimization experiences of African American and white inmates is important for developing effective crime prevention strategies in prison. We examined the most comprehensive models of inmate victimization (including inmate socio-demographics, activities during confinement, perceptions of officers, facility characteristics, and officer perceptions of rule enforcement) for one of the largest samples of prisons to date.