RECONSIDERING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SES AND DELINQUENCY: CAUSATION BUT NOT CORRELATION*

Many theories of crime have linked low levels of socioeconomic status (SES) to high levels of delinquency. However, empirical studies have consistently found weak or nonexistent correlations between individuals' SES and their self-reported delinquent behavior. Drawing upon recent theoretical innovations (Hagan et al., 1985; Jensen, 1993; Tittle, 1995), we propose that this apparent contradiction between theory and data may be reconciled by recognizing that SES has both a negative and a positive indirect effect upon delinquency that, in tandem, results in little overall correlation between the two. We tested this proposal with longitudinal data from the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study. We used measures of parental SES recorded at study members' birth through age 15, social-psychological characteristics at age 18, and self-reported delinquency at ages 18 and 21. We found that low SES promoted delinquency by increasing individuals' alienation, financial strain, and aggression and by decreasing educational and occupational aspirations, whereas high SES promoted individuals' delinquency by increasing risk taking and social power and by decreasing conventional values. These findings suggest a reconciliation between theory and data, and they underscore the conceptual importance of elucidating the full range of causal linkages between SES and delinquency.     

YOUTH EMPLOYMENT AND DELINQUENCY: RECONSIDERING A PROBLEMATIC RELATIONSHIP*

Employment is often thought to discourage participation in crime, but self-report data from juveniles consistently disclose a positive correlation between employment and delinquency. This analysis tests three possible explanations for that correlation. The first is that differences in levels of delinquency between workers and nonworkers exist prior to employment. The second holds that working increases independence from parents, thereby reducing the controlling effect of parental influence. The third explanation, drawing on Sutherland's theory of differential association, is that employment increases delinquent behavior by exposing adolescents to a wider network of peers, including delinquent peers. Analysis of data from waves 1, 2, and 3 of the National Youth Survey reveals a positive association between employment and some forms of delinquency, especially alcohol and drug use. Selection bias explains much, but not all, of the association. Although no support is found for the parental influence explanation, the remaining employment effect is explained by exposure to delinquent peers.     

INDIVIDUAL AND ORGANIZATIONAL DETERMINANTS OF CORRECTIONAL OFFICER ATTITUDES TOWARD INMATES*

This paper analyzes the impact of individual attributes and organizational influences in the determination of correctional officers’attitudes toward inmates. Drawing on survey data from 179 line-level correctional officers, the analysis evaluates the expectations of prison reformers that more highly educated, female, and minority officers will hold more positive attitudes toward their inmate clientele. Contrary expectations drawn from the sociology of work literature suggest that the work-role socialization will overshadow the effect of individual attributes in the determination of officer attitudes. The analysis reveals that minority officers hold more positive orientations toward inmates, while education and gender exert no impact. In addition, organizational-level characteristics are also important in the prediction of officer views of inmates. These findings suggest that correctional reforms that focus primarily on changing the demographic composition of correctional officers are quite unlikely to ameliorate significantly the tension in today's prisons. It is necessary for both reformers and social scientists to develop more sophisticated analyses of the interplay between individual attributes and work organization characteristics and their joint effects on behavior in the prison setting.     

RELIGION,DISCRIMINATORY ATTITUDES AND THE ORIENTATIONS OF JUVENILE JUSTICE PERSONNEL: A RESEARCH NOTE*

Advancements in the understanding of racial and gender disparity in case outcomes are evident in the theoretical and empirical refinements that emphasize the contingencies of decision making. In this article, we argue that a conservative world view reflects a patterning of attitudes that includes interrelationships among beliefs in a literal interpretation of the Bible and racial and gender stereotyping. Our hypothesis is that this conservative resonance will predict more punitive correctional orientations among a sample of juvenile justice personnel. The findings provide support for the existence of a conservative patterning of attitudes that predict punitive orientations. The resonance is less effective in explaining rehabilitative philosophies. The results have implications for assessing the issue of racial and gender bias in the juvenile justice system.     

EXPLAINING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EMPLOYMENT AND JUVENILE DELINQUENCY*

Most criminological theories predict an inverse relationship between employment and crime, but teenagers' involvement in paid work during the school year is correlated positively with delinquency and substance use. Whether the work–delinquency association is causal or spurious has been debated for a long time. This study estimates the effect of paid work on juvenile delinquency using longitudinal data from the national Monitoring the Future project. We address issues of spuriousness by using a two-level hierarchical model to estimate the relationships of within-individual changes in juvenile delinquency and substance use to those in paid work and other explanatory variables. We also disentangle the effects of actual employment from the preferences for employment to provide insight about the likely role of time-varying selection factors tied to employment, delinquency, school engagement, and leisure activities. Whereas causal effects of employment would produce differences based on whether and how many hours respondents worked, we found significantly higher rates of crime and substance use among nonemployed youth who preferred intensive versus moderate work. Our findings suggest the relationship between high-intensity work and delinquency results from preexisting factors that lead youth to desire varying levels of employment.     

PROTESTANT FUNDAMENTALISM AND THE RETRIBUTIVE DOCTRINE OF PUNISHMENT*

In Gregg v. Georgia in 1976, the U.S. Supreme Court declared that public opinion, including the public's presumed desire for retribution, can be a legitimate basis for penal policy. Subsequently, the retributive doctrine has guided sentencing reform across the nation. But variation among the public in support for retribution as the goal of punishment and the effects of religion in shaping public sentiments about punishment have received little attention from researchers. Drawing from recent work on attribution theory and religion, this paper proposes and reports evidence that public support for the retributive doctrine is closely linked to affiliation with fundamentalist Protestant denominations and fundamentalist religious beliefs. The normative implications of such a connection are addressed.     

MICROANOMIE: THE COGNITIVE FOUNDATIONS OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ANOMIE AND DEVIANCE*

Emile Durkheim and Robert Merton spawned a century of research on the effects of anomie on rule‐breaking behavior. During that time “strain” emerged as the social psychological mechanism producing deviant behavior from the effects of anomie. This research challenges the primacy of the affective strain mechanism, arguing that anomie produces a cognitive state—referred to as microanomie—where self‐enhancing values are higher priority than self‐transcending values. Data from a sample of university students support the association between dominant self‐enhancing values and deviant behavior. These data also demonstrate how the microanomie condition can explain gender differences in offending. A synthesis with the affective strain mechanism is suggested.     

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LAW VIOLATION AND DEPRESSION: AN INTERACTIONS ANALYSIS*

This paper integrates arguments from differential social control theory with sociological research on mental health to develop an interactionist explanation of the relationship between law violation and depression. We focus on the possibility that law violation and depression are related because they share common antecedents, as well as the possibility that these problems mutually influence one another over time. We test hypotheses derived from our theoretical perspective using covariance structure analysis and panel data. Our results show that the relationship between law violation and depression can be explained largely by common antecedents—social‐structural positions, stressful life events, and adolescent problems shape social relationships and identities, which together influence the likelihood of both early adulthood crime and depression. We also find limited support for mutual influence.     

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CHILDHOOD MALTREATMENT AND ADOLESCENT INVOLVEMENT IN DELINQUENCY*

Recent research suggests a link between childhood maltreatment and later involvement in delinquency. This study examines this issue using official and self-report data from the Rochester Youth Development Study. The analysis addresses three central issues: the magnitude of the relationship between early child maltreatment and later delinquency, official and self-reported; the possibility of spuriousness in this relationship; and the impact of more extensive measurement of maltreatment on later delinquency. A significant relationship between child maltreatment and self-reported and official delinquency is found and this relationship, especially for more serious forms of delinquency, remains when controlling for other factors. The results also suggest that more extensive maltreatment is related to higher rates of delinquency. Implications and suggestions for further research are discussed.     

ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FAMILY STRUCTURE AND ANTISOCIAL BEHAVIOR: PARENTAL COHABITATION AND BLENDED HOUSEHOLDS*

In the last several decades, the American family has undergone considerable change, with less than half of all adolescents residing with two married biological parents. Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, we construct an elaborate measure of family structure and find considerable heterogeneity in the risk of antisocial and delinquent behavior among groups of youth who reside in what are traditionally dichotomized as intact and nonintact families. In particular, we find that youth in “intact” families differ in important ways depending on whether the two biological parents are married or cohabiting and on whether they have children from a previous relationship. In addition, we find that youth who reside with a single biological parent who cohabits with a nonbiological partner exhibit an unusually high rate of antisocial behavior, especially if the custodial parent is the biological father.     

UNPACKING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ADOLESCENT EMPLOYMENT AND ANTISOCIAL BEHAVIOR: A MATCHED SAMPLES COMPARISON*

A large body of research has consistently found that intensive employment during the school year is associated with heightened antisocial behavior. These findings have been influential in prompting policy recommendations to establish stricter limits on the number of hours that students can work during the school year. We reexamine the linkage between first‐time work at age 16 during the school year and problem behaviors. Our analysis uses group‐based trajectory modeling to stratify youths based on their developmental history of crime and substance abuse. This stratification serves to control for preexisting differences between workers and nonworkers and permits us to examine whether the effect of work on problem behaviors depends on the developmental history of those behaviors. Contrary to most prior research we find no overall effect of working on either criminal behavior or substance abuse. However, we do find some indication that work may have a salutary effect on these behaviors for some individuals who had followed trajectories of heightened criminal activity or substance abuse prior to their working for the first time.     

THE STOCHASTIC RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PATENTS AND ANTITRUST

This article develops a novel theory by which to construe theinteraction between the patent and antitrust laws. The rulesof these respective disciplines are often portrayed as conflictingin means, yet harmonious in purpose. Although the intellectualproperty and antitrust laws have ostensibly divergent viewson the role of competition, their interaction is typically limitedto one of constraint. More specifically, antitrust rules havebeen (poorly) designed to limit the exclusivity inherent ina patent grant to the claimed invention alone. This article,however, articulates a new vision for the role of antitrust:it posits that competition rules operate as a stochastic regulatorof exclusionary patent rights. The Sherman Act constrains patentees'efforts to positively transform the probabilistic nature oftheir intellectual property rights through contract. Yet, becausethe empirical calculation of optimal innovation rates is anelusive, if not Sisyphean, task, the normative desirabilityof the foregoing fact is abstruse. Nevertheless, policymakers'inability to pinpoint precisely the ex post rewards requiredto trigger ideal levels of ex ante investment need not bindour hands to inaction. If contemporary rates of innovation aredeemed acceptable (even if not necessarily perfect), there maybe ways to trigger equivalent levels of ex ante investment withlower social cost. In this regard, it is clear that currentlyenacted competition rules significantly accentuate the uncertaintysurrounding patents' apotropaic effect. Concluding that contractssecuring otherwise stochastic rights may be highly desirable,the article calls for the incorporation of this concern intocontemporary rules, with modest substantive effect, and furtheradvocates a qualified antitrust immunity for "gold-plated" patentsif and when they are introduced.     

EXAMINING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MILITARY SERVICE AND CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR DURING THE VIETNAM ERA: A RESEARCH NOTE*

Throughout U.S. history, the military has played a role in the lives of a large proportion of the U.S. population. However, little research has focused on this topic, particularly in criminology. This study seeks to determine whether military service changes an individual's criminal behavior and/or whether the military provides another setting for the continuation of prior behavior. To address these questions, this study uses Wolfgang's 1945 Philadelphia birth cohort and Shannon's 1949 Racine, Wisconsin birth cohort data sets. Statistical methods were used to account for potential differences in selection and the presence of unobserved heterogeneity. Results suggest that military service reduces later offending in general. However, there is no significant effect of service on later violent behavior.     

RELIGION AND CRIME REEXAMINED: THE IMPACT OF RELIGION,SECULAR CONTROLS,AND SOCIAL ECOLOGY ON ADULT CRIMINALITY*

Since Hirschi and Stark's (1969) surprising failure to find religious (“hellfire”) effects on delinquency, subsequent research has generally revealed an inverse relationship between religiosity and various forms of deviance, delinquency, and crime. The complexity of the relationship and conditions under which it holds, however, continue to be debated. Although a few researchers have found that religion's influence is noncontingent, most have found support—especially among youths—for effects that vary by denomination, type of offense, and social and/or religious context. More recently the relationship has been reported as spurious when relevant secular controls are included. Our research attempts to resolve these issues by testing the religion-crime relationship in models with a comprehensive crime measure and three separate dimensions of religiosity. We also control for secular constraints, religious networks, and social ecology. We found that, among our religiosity measures, participation in religious activities was a persistent and noncontingent inhibiter of adult crime.     

RECONSIDERING THE BROKEN HOMES/DELINQUENCY RELATIONSHIP AND EXPLORING ITS MEDIATING MECHANISM(S)*

As a result of methodological limitations, prior research may have artificially attenuated the magnitude of the broken homes/delinquency relationship. As a result of theoretical limitations, prior research has achieved only limited success in identifying the mechanism through which broken homes may promote delinquency. The present study addresses both issues using a national probability sample of 1, 725 adolescents. Results suggest that divorce/separation early in the life course may be more strongly related to delinquency than prior research implies and that remarriage during adolescence may be strongly associated with status offending. Overall, results also suggest that association with deviant peers and attitudes favorable to delinquency account for the broken homes/delinquency relationship better than do a number of alternative explanations.     

THE ATTITUDES OF WOMEN AND MEN IN POLICING: TESTING CONVENTIONAL AND CONTEMPORARY WISDOM*

Historically, women were excluded from policing because they were thought to be physically as well as temperamentally unsuited for the rigors of police work Despite the fact that most evaluations of behavior on the street reveal few differences in the way men and women perform most tasks, many police officers, as well as academicians and observers, believe that women bring a different set of attitudes and values to policing. However, there has been little research that either confirms or casts doubt upon these attitudinal differences. This study examines the conflicting predictions about gender and attitudes derived from theory about gender differences and sociological theory about occupational socialization, drawing upon the former to develop hypotheses about four dimensions of police attitudes: perspectives on the police role, attitudes toward citizens, evaluations of departments and coworkers, and occupational integration. These hypotheses are tested with data from the Police Services Study, which surveyed police officers in 24 departments. The results suggest that although men and women may not be equally integrated into their jobs as police officers, there are few differences in the ways men and women see their role, their clientele, or their departments.     

THE VICTIM-OFFENDER RELATIONSHIP AND CALLING THE POLICE IN ASSAULTS*

The revised National Crime Victimization Survey is used to examine the effects of the victim's relationship to the offender on whether assaults are reported to the police by either the victim or by third parties. The results indicate that the offender-victim relationship affects third-party but not victim reporting. The former effect occurs in part because third parties are unlikely to witness assaults involving people in ongoing relationships, particularly couples, and in part because third parties are reluctant to report minor assaults (i.e., those assaults that involve a threat but no actual attack and no weapon). We discuss possible explanations for why no effect of relationship on victim reporting was found.