AGE-VARYING EFFECTS OF FAMILY,SCHOOL, AND PEERS ON DELINQUENCY: A MULTILEVEL MODELING TEST OF INTERACTIONAL THEORY*

Few criminologists have directly examined whether the importance of family, school, and peers in the etiology of delinquency changes over the developmental period of adolescence. This study tests hypotheses, derived from Thornberry's (1987) interactional theory, about the age-varying effects of attachment to parents, commitment to school, and association with delinquent peers on delinquency by applying Bryk and Raudenbush's (1992) hierarchical linear models to analyze the first five waves of data from the National Youth Survey. Results show that the direct as well as total effects of delinquent peers and school on delinquency tend to increase from early to middle adolescence, reach a peak at the age of mid-13 and mid-15, respectively, and then decline. This curvilinear pattern of change is interpreted as reflective of the process of adolescent development and the age-delinquency relationship. On the other hand, both direct and total effects of family on delinquency are found to be significant throughout the period of adolescence, but the effects do not systematically vary as hypothesized. Theoretical, methodological, and policy implications of the findings are also discussed.     

SCHOOL DISORDER: THE INFLUENCE OF INDIVIDUAL,INSTITUTIONAL, AND COMMUNITY FACTORS*

Drawing upon control theory, school climate theory, and social disorganization theory, this study examined the relative influence of individual, institutional, and community factors on misconduct in Philadelphia middle schools. Using U.S. census data, school district data, police department data, and school climate survey data obtained from the administration of the Effective School Battery to 7, 583 students in 11 middle schools, we examined the following predictors of student misconduct: community poverty and residential stability; community crime; school size; student perceptions of school climate (school attachment); and individual student characteristics (e.g., age, race, sex, school involvement and effort, belief in rules, positive peer associations). “Community” was conceptualized in two ways: “local” (the census tract around the school), and “imported” (aggregated measures from the census tracts where students actually lived). We used hierarchical linear modeling techniques (HLM) to examine between- and within-school factors. Individual-level factors accounted for 16% of the explained variance; school and community-level factors (both local and imported) added only small increments (an additional 4.1–4.5%). We conclude that simplistic assumptions that “bad” communities typically produce “bad” children or “bad” schools are unwarranted.     

NEIGHBORHOOD DISORDER,INDIVIDUAL RELIGIOSITY,AND ADOLESCENT USE OF ILLICIT DRUGS: A TEST OF MULTILEVEL HYPOTHESES*

We hypothesize about the relationships among perceived neighborhood disorder, individual religiosity, and adolescent use of illicit drugs, marijuana and hard drugs; and the age‐varying effects of religiosity on illicit drug use. Applying hierarchical linear models to analyze the National Youth Survey data, we first find that neighborhood disorder and religiosity have hypothesized effects on illicit drug use independent of social bonding and social learning variables that partly mediate the effects. Second, religiosity buffers the effects of neighborhood disorder on illicit drug use. Third, the effects of religiosity on illicit drug use become stronger throughout adolescence. The implications of the findings are discussed.     

SCHOOLS AS COMMUNITIES: THE RELATIONSHIPS AMONG COMMUNAL SCHOOL ORGANIZATION,STUDENT BONDING,AND SCHOOL DISORDER*

Research has indicated that school factors such as communal school organization and student bonding are predictive of school disorder, with greater communal organization and greater student bonding leading to less delinquency and victimization. Data from a nationally representative sample of 254 public, nonalternative, secondary schools were used to examine structural equation models representing hypothesized relationships among communal school organization, student bonding, and school disorder. The hypothesis that communally organized schools would have less disorder held true for teacher victimization and student delinquency, but not for student victimization. In addition, the hypothesis that the relationship between communal school organization and school disorder would be mediated by student bonding was supported for student delinquency, but not for teacher victimization.     

UNRAVELING THE CONTEXTUAL EFFECTS ON STUDENT SUSPENSION AND JUVENILE ARREST: THE INDEPENDENT AND INTERDEPENDENT INFLUENCES OF SCHOOL,NEIGHBORHOOD, AND FAMILY SOCIAL CONTROLS*

Scholars of human development argue that a variety of social contexts affect youth development and that the interdependency of these contexts bears on the shape of human lives. However, few studies of contextual effects have attempted to model the effects of school, neighborhood, and family context at the same time, or to explore the relative and interdependent impact of these contexts on youth outcomes. This study provides an examination of the independent and interdependent influences of school, neighborhood, and familial contexts through an analysis of student suspension and juvenile arrest. Findings reveal that school‐based and family‐based informal social controls additively combine to reduce the likelihood of suspension and arrest. Moreover, for suspension, results support the hypothesis that an interdependent compensatory relation is present between the extent of collective efficacy in schools and in the surrounding neighborhood; school collective efficacy has a controlling influence on the likelihood of suspension that becomes even stronger in the absence of neighborhood collective efficacy. However, for arrest, an accentuating effect of school‐based social controls exists rather than a compensatory effect. A lack of neighborhood collective efficacy and a lack of school‐based social controls combine to exert a substantial increase in the likelihood of arrest.     

THE MULTILEVEL CONTEXT OF CRIMINAL SENTENCING: INTEGRATING JUDGE‐ AND COUNTY‐LEVEL INFLUENCES*

This study extends recent inquiries of contextual effects in sentencing by jointly examining the influence of judge and courtroom social contexts. It combines two recent years of individual sentencing data from the Pennsylvania Commission on Sentencing (PCS) with data on judicial background characteristics and county court social contexts. Three‐level hierarchical models are estimated to investigate the influence of judge and county contexts on individual variations in sentencing. Results indicate that nontrivial sentencing variations are associated with both individual judge characteristics and county court contexts. Judicial background factors also condition the influence of individual offender characteristics in important ways. These and other findings are discussed in relation to contemporary theoretical perspectives on courtroom decision making that highlight the importance of both judge and court contexts in sentencing. The study concludes with suggestions for future research on contextual disparities in criminal sentencing.     

IN SEARCH OF A DEPENDENT VARIABLE: COMMENT ON AVAKAME, 1998*

In a previous Criminology article, Avakame (1998) applies hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) techniques to Supplementary Homicide Reports (SHR) to disentangle individual‐ and aggregate‐level factors associated with offending. A close reading of his analysis reveals serious flaws in the dependent variable, which renders the results meaningless. Although it is ambiguous whether Avakame intended to model homicide “risk” or “frequency,” either is problematic. “Homicide frequency” has no logical connection to the individual‐level predictors; “homicide risk” is constant in SHR data, which makes the analysis impossible. In detailing these problems, we spell out the logical data requirements and offer sound empirical examples for an HLM analysis.     

SCHOOL BONDING,RACE, AND DELINQUENCY*

While there is considerable evidence that blacks experience school in qualitatively distinct ways from whites, there has been a general failure to examine racial variation in the impact of school variables on juvenile misconduct. The purpose of this research is to describe the manner in which school bonding affects delinquent conduct, focusing in particular on the role of the school in the delinquent involvement of black youths. Our orientation is primarily a control theory one that suggests that the greater the degree of school bonding the lesser the likelihood of involvement in delinquent activities. Our review of the literature leads us to expect differential levels of bonding by race and across varying racial environments of schools, with resulting differential effects on delinquency. On the basis of a neighborhood sample of 942 adolescents, we identijj seven distinct dimensions of school bonding. The analysis reveals that blacks are at least as strongly bonded to the school as whites, that our model explains comparable amounts of variance in delinquency across race-sex subgroups, and that the racial composition of the school is generally unimportant in conditioning the effect of school bonding on delinquency. While our findings are generally supportive of control theory, a model that purports to be invariant across race, gender, and socioeconomic boundaries, we caution that such a conclusion may be both premature and mistaken. We discuss the implications of these findings and suggest that they be interpreted within a framework that also considers family and peer bonding.     

POLICING CRIME AND DISORDER HOT SPOTS: A RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED TRIAL*

Dealing with physical and social disorder to prevent serious crime has become a central strategy for policing. This study evaluates the effects of policing disorder, within a problem‐oriented policing framework, at crime and disorder hot spots in Lowell, Massachusetts. Thirty‐four hot spots were matched into 17 pairs, and one member of each pair was allocated to treatment conditions in a randomized block field experiment. The officers engaged “shallow” problem solving and implemented a strategy that more closely resembled a general policing disorder strategy rather than carefully designed problem‐oriented policing responses. Nevertheless, the impact evaluation revealed significant reductions in crime and disorder calls for service, and systematic observations of social and physical disorder at the treatment places relative to the control places uncovered no evidence of significant crime displacement. A mediation analysis of the isolated and exhaustive causal mechanisms that comprised the strategy revealed that the strongest crime‐prevention gains were generated by situational prevention strategies rather than by misdemeanor arrests or social service strategies.     

MISSING THE MARK: REFLECTIONS ON GREENBERG'S COMMENT*

Greenberg's (2003) Comment fails to address the substance or spirit of “The Privatization of Violence.”     

NONSHARED ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCES ON ADOLESCENT DELINQUENT INVOLVEMENT AND ADULT CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR*

Findings gleaned from behavioral genetic research have revealed that nonshared environments are particularly important sources of behavioral variation. Surprisingly little criminological research has examined directly the effects of the nonshared environment on adolescent delinquent involvement and adult criminal behavior. The current study addressed this gap in the literature by calculating difference scores in a sample of 289 monozygotic (MZ) twin pairs to examine the effects of the nonshared familial environment on delinquent involvement, adult criminal behavior, levels of self‐control, and contact with antisocial peers. Analysis of MZ twin pairs from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) revealed that one nonshared family environment—maternal disengagement—was associated with delinquent involvement and the development of self‐control. The remaining nonshared familial environments, however, were not associated with antisocial outcomes. Implications of the findings are discussed.     

WEAPON EFFECTS AND INDIVIDUAL INTENT TO DO HARM: INFLUENCES ON THE ESCALATION OF VIOLENCE*

In order to assess the roles of weapons and offender intentions in the outcomes of potentially violent events, we analyze more than 2,000 incidents described by offenders. We advance the study of weapons effects through a within‐person analysis that lets us control for all time‐stable characteristics of the offenders. Thus, we address the concern that relationships between type of weapon and incident outcome may be spurious because individuals with a greater propensity to do harm are more likely to use guns. Findings indicate that weapons have independent effects that differ across the stages of an event.     

A LONGITUDINAL TEST OF SOCIAL DISORGANIZATION THEORY: FEEDBACK EFFECTS AMONG COHESION,SOCIAL CONTROL,AND DISORDER*

Social disorganization theory holds that neighborhoods with greater residential stability, higher socioeconomic status, and more ethnic homogeneity experience less disorder because these neighborhoods have higher social cohesion and exercise more social control. Recent extensions of the theory argue that disorder in turn affects these structural characteristics and mechanisms. Using a data set on 74 neighborhoods in the city of Utrecht in the Netherlands spanning 10 years, we tested the extended theory, which to date only a few studies have been able to do because of the unavailability of neighborhood‐level longitudinal data. We also improve on previous studies by distinguishing between the potential for social control (feelings of responsibility) and the actual social control behavior. Cross‐sectional analyses replicate earlier findings, but the results of longitudinal cross‐lagged models suggest that disorder has large consequences for subsequent levels of social control and residential instability, thus leading to more disorder. This is in contrast to most previous studies, which assume disorder to be more a consequence than a cause. This study underlines the importance of longitudinal data, allowing for simultaneously testing the causes and consequences of disorder, as well as the importance of breaking down social control into the two dimensions of the potential for social control and the actual social control behavior.     

EXTENDING SOCIAL DISORGANIZATION THEORY: MODELING THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN COHESION,DISORDER, AND FEAR*

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.     

RACE,CODE OF THE STREET,AND VIOLENT DELINQUENCY: A MULTILEVEL INVESTIGATION OF NEIGHBORHOOD STREET CULTURE AND INDIVIDUAL NORMS OF VIOLENCE*

The study outlined in this article drew on Elijah Anderson's (1999) code of the street perspective to examine the impact of neighborhood street culture on violent delinquency. Using data from more than 700 African American adolescents, we examined 1) whether neighborhood street culture predicts adolescent violence above and beyond an adolescent's own street code values and 2) whether neighborhood street culture moderates individual-level street code values on adolescent violence. Consistent with Anderson's hypotheses, neighborhood street culture significantly predicts violent delinquency independent of individual-level street code effects. Additionally, neighborhood street culture moderates individual-level street code values on violence in neighborhoods where the street culture is widespread. In particular, the effect of street code values on violence is enhanced in neighborhoods where the street culture is endorsed widely.     

CONTROLLING DRUG AND DISORDER PROBLEMS: THE ROLE OF PLACE MANAGERS*

This article explores the role of place managers in controlling drug and disorder problems on 100 street blocks in Oakland, California. We use self-reports from a sample of place managers to explore their role in changing the social and physical conditions of street-block activity within the context of a randomized field trial in Oakland. On-site observations of the changes in the social and physical conditions of 100 street blocks were conducted and used as our outcome measures. Our results suggest that street blocks where place managers engaged in collective crime control activities had significantly fewer signs of disorder and greater levels of civil behavior. Our results also show that community cohesiveness on a street block was associated with fewer males selling drugs     

GIRL FRIENDS ARE BETTER: GENDER,FRIENDS, AND CRIME AMONG SCHOOL AND STREET YOUTH*

In recent years, popular media has drawn attention to “mean girls” and their negative treatment of others, particularly other females. But while the attention to girls' aggression and their mistreatment of their peers highlights understudied aspects of female behavior, it neglects the beneficial aspects of female friendship. We argue that compared to relationships with males, friendships with females provide more social control, fewer opportunities and less motivation for offending and may therefore discourage crime. Because an adolescent's gender likely influences the association between the gender of one's friends and crime, we anticipate that the association will be stronger for females than for males. The relationship is also likely affected by the context in which relationships originate; we expect that those that develop in less conventional contexts will have weaker effects on crime. We explore these hypotheses with a comparative analysis of effects of friendships on property crime in two samples of youth: those who live at home and attend school and those who are homeless and spend their days and nights on the street. Our findings support our hypotheses. The relationship between female‐dominated friendship networks and property crime is negative and significant; however, this association is strongest for school females, weaker for school males and females who live on the street, and nonsignificant for homeless males.     

PSYCHIATRISTS IN BLUE: POLICE APPREHENSION OF MENTAL DISORDER AND DANGEROUSNESS*

This article examines the discretionary judgments and reporting practices of police officers, in their apprehension of 528 defendants subsequently remanded for psychiatric assessment in a forensic unit located in Toronto, Canada. Analysis of arrest documents indicated that police routinely invoked labels of mental illness and dangerousness, and that they recommended psychiatric assessment in over a third of cases that eventuated in clinical remands. A significant relationship was yielded between police judgments and clinical assessments concerning the dangerousness of defendants. The police reports of forensic patients demonstrated the tendency of arresting officers to recommend psychiatric assessment as a vehicle for ensuring the dual application of judicial and therapeutic interventions. These police records were replete with moral assessments about mentally disordered defendants and with a number of strategies designed to influence the subsequent decisions of other legal and psychiatric authorities. In this study the police functioned as forensic gatekeepers, alerting clinicians and other officials to signs of mental disorder and criminality and to appropriate courses of action. At the initial point of arrest, the police assisted in laying the groundwork for the subsequent institutional careers of medicolegal subjects.