SUBTERRANEAN SOURCES OF SUBCULTURAL DELINQUENCY BEYOND THE AMERICAN DREAM*

Are subcultural forms of crime and delinquency wholesale rejections or distorted reflections of core values of market-oriented societies? Current evidence casts doubt on the former position, while contemporary theory suggests the possibility that a culture of competition encourages hierarchic forms of self-interest, leading to the acceptance of inequality and anomic amorality and, ultimately, to group-related delinquency. Oddly, the effects of this culture of competition and hierarchic self-interest have not previously been documented empirically in sociological or criminological research, even though this step is fundamental and crucial to the argument that subcultural crime and delinquency derive from market-driven values. We analyze data from four sites in East and West Germany to identify the strands of a subterranean causal web that link core values of market society to subcultural delinquency.     

THE IMPACT OF SEX COMPOSITION ON GANGS AND GANG MEMBER DELINQUENCY*

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.     

GANG HOMICIDE,DELINQUENCY, AND COMMUNITY*

Analysis of community-level data on community areas in Chicago substantiates two conceptual differences: the first. between gang crime and delinquency as community-level phenomena; and the second, between theoretical associations of each of the former to community-area patterns of social disorganization and poverty. One pattern is more common in Chicago's Hispanic communities; the other, in Chicago's black communities. Five measures of the quality of community life used are gang homicide rate, delinquency rate, unemployment rate, percentage living below the poverty level, and mortgage investment per dwelling. Identifying communities as white, black, Hispanic, or mixed and applying discriminant analysis reveal the racial-ethnic communities as distinct social worlds. Regression analyses of gang homicide and delinquency rates show that the two measures display very different patterns of association with other community characteristics. An analysis of the residual change score for gang homicide rate over two time periods indicates the relative stability of community patterns with poverty measures explaining much of the change in patterns. It is concluded that gang homicide rates and delinquency rates are ecologically distinct community problems. The distribution of gang homicide rates conforms to classic theories of social disorganization and poverty, and the distribution of delinquency rates is more generally associated with poverty.     

GANG MEMBERSHIP AS A TURNING POINT IN THE LIFE COURSE*

Gang‐involved youth are disproportionately involved in criminal behavior, especially violence. The processes accounting for this enhanced illegal activity, however, remain speculative. Employing a life‐course perspective, we propose that gang membership can be conceptualized as a turning point in the lives of youth and is thus associated with changes in emotions, attitudes, and routine activities, which, in turn, increase illegal activity. Using prospective data from a multisite sample of more than 1,400 youth, the findings suggest that the onset of gang membership is associated with a substantial change in emotions, attitudes, and social controls conducive to delinquency and partially mediate the impact of gang membership on delinquent activity. Desistance from gangs, however, was not associated with similar systematic changes in these constructs, including delinquent involvement.     

THE DYNAMICS OF DELINQUENT PEERS AND DELINQUENT BEHAVIOR*

This analysis examines the dynamic reciprocal relationship between delinquent peer associations and delinquent behavior. It tests the hypothesis, derived from learning and interactional theories, that delinquent peers and delinquent behavior are reciprocally related—delinquent peer associations foster future delinquency, and delinquency increases the likelihood of associating with delinquent peers. It also tests the competing hypothesis, derived from control theories, that delinquent peers do not cause delinquency, but instead, the relationship is (1) spurious due to individual criminal propensity, (2) a result of the effects of delinquent behavior on future associations with delinquent peers, or (3) an artifact of problems of measuring delinquent peers. To test these propositions, we use data from the National Youth Survey and estimate a cross-lagged panel model that corrects for measurement error in indicators of delinquent peers and delinquent behavior. The model species a covariance structure model for ordinal measures. Parameters are estimated by (1) estimating a threshold model relating ordinal measures to continuous latent variables; (2) estimating a matrix of polychoric correlations relating observed variables, and (3) using an asymptotic distribution-free estimator to estimate structural parameters. The results suggest that delinquent peer associations and delinquent behavior are reciprocally related, but the effect of delinquency on peer associations is larger than that of peer associations on delinquency.     

MAKING DELINQUENT FRIENDS: ADULT SUPERVISION AND CHILDREN'S AFFILIATIONS*

Although having delinquent friends is one of the strongest known correlates of delinquent behavior, criminologists have been curiously silent as to why some adolescents acquire delinquent friends and others do not. Analysis of data from the national Survey of Parents and Children reveals a strong association between forms of direct and indirect parental supervision and the kinds of friends that adolescents make. Parents who closely monitor their children's affiliations exhibit a variety of traits typical of involved or conscientious parents. Indirect supervision also appears to mediate the effect of attachment to parents, one of the few established correlates of delinquent friendships. These and other findings illustrate the critical role that parent‐child relations play in the process of making delinquent friends.     

THE GENDERING OF VIOLENT DELINQUENCY*

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.     

THE METHODS OF DELINQUENCY THEORY*

Delinquency theory must come to terms with experimental studies of causation and with existential studies of delinquents in situ The three are closely related. Existential studies provide insight into both the forms of delinquency and its causal matrix, and causal studies suggest both the relevant context and lawful regularities in the nature of delinquency. Moreover, using the concepts of domain and generality, one sees that strain “theory” is not a theory but a causal paradigm and that it is not competitive with control theory. One also finds that social control theory and cultural deviance are parallel in that both deal essentially with conforming behavior.     

SELF‐REPORTED GANG INVOLVEMENT AND OFFICIALLY RECORDED DELINQUENCY*

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.     

CONTRIBUTIONS OF FAMILIES AND PEERS TO DELINQUENCY*

A model is presented that explains the contribution of parents and peers to adolescent delinquent behavior. It is hypothesized that during adolescence a failure in Parent Monitoring and deficits in Social Skills increase the likelihood that a youngster associates with Deviant Peers. Poor Parent Monitoring Deviant Peers, and low levels of Academic Skills are hypothesized to contribute directly to an adolescent's engagement in delinquent behavior, The present model was tested on a sample of 136 seventh and tenth grade male adolescents by using the structural modeling approach in the LISREL IV analysis program (Jöreskog & Sörbom, 1978). The major revision of the model was that the correlation between Academic Skills and Parent Monitoring was set to zero. A chi square goodness-of-fit test for the revised model showed adequate agreement between the hypothesized model and the observed covariance structure of the data. It was suggested that a number of requirements be completed before accepting the above model: (1) replication of this model on a new set of data, (2) longitudinal analyses showing the hypothesized relations through time, and (3) experimental testing by manipulation of one or more independent variables, as is possible in clinical intervention studies.     

THE ECOLOGY OF GANG TERRITORIAL BOUNDARIES*

Within any type of system, the actors in the system inevitably compete over resources. With competition comes the possibility of conflict. To minimize such effects, actors often will partition the system into geographic territories. It is against the larger ecological backdrop of competition and conflict that we examine territory formation among urban street gangs. Although previous studies have examined the social and built environment where gangs form, and how the presence of a gang influences local levels of violence, we know little about how competitive interactions are tied to the formation and maintenance of gang territories. We use formal spatial Lotka–Volterra competition models to derive hypotheses about competition‐driven territory formation. By using data on 563 between‐gang shootings, involving 13 rival street gangs in the Hollenbeck Policing Division of Los Angeles, we show that violence strongly clusters along the boundaries between gangs in a way that is quantitatively predicted by the theory. The results suggest that even weak competitive interactions between gangs are sufficient to drive gang territory formation without recourse to other processes or assumptions.     

ADAPTING TO STRAIN: AN EXAMINATION OF DELINQUENT COPING RESPONSES*

Strain theories have conceptualized delinquency as a form of adaptive, problem-solving behavior, usually committed in response to problems involving frustrating and undesirable social environments. The most recent version of strain theory, Agnew's general strain theory, provides the most complete formulation of this argument by suggesting that delinquent behavior enables adolescents to cope with the socioemotional problems generated by negative social relations. To date, however, the actual coping effectiveness of delinquency remains unexamined. This study explores the ways that delinquency may enable adolescents to cope with strain, and it uses national survey data to test the coping effectiveness of delinquent behavior. The findings indicate that delinquency enables adolescents to minimize the negative emotional consequences of strain, and they provide empirical support for the interpretation of delinquency as an adaptive response to aversive environments. Implications for criminological theory are discussed.     

ON THE INITIATION AND CONTINUATION OF DELINQUENCY*

An ongoing debate among criminologists concerns the merits of studying different dimensions of offending, such as initiation, frequency, and duration. One critical point of contention is whether separate models are necessary to explain different aspects of offending. The current study uses empirical data to assess whether different models are required to explain initiation and continuation of delinquent behavior. Using the first four waves of the National Youth Survey, we focus on the predictive ability of variables central to social control, labelling, differential association, and urbanism perspectives. We find many similarities and some differences between models for initiation and continuation of delinquency. We discuss the relevance of these results for developing a more comprehensive understanding of criminal behavior.     

AN EMPIRICAL TEST OF SCHOOL-BASED ENVIRONMENTAL AND INDIVIDUAL INTERVENTIONS TO REDUCE THE RISK OF DELINQUENT BEHAVIOR*

This report examines a school-based delinquency prevention program that combined an environmental change approach with direct intervention for high-risk youths to reduce delinquent behavior and increase educational attainment. The program involved school stafl students, and community members in planning and implementing a comprehensive school improvement effort; changed disciplinary procedures; and enhanced the school program with activities aimed at increasing achievement and creating a more positive school climate. It also provided services to marginal students designed to increase their self-concepts and success experiences and to strengthen their bonds to the school. The program brought about a small but measurable reduction in delinquent behavior and misconduct. Students in participating schools were suspended less often, reported fewer punishing experiences in school, and reported less involvement in delinquent and drug-related activities. The environmental interventions apparently decreased delinquency and misconduct by promoting a sense of belonging in and attachment to the school and by improving the general climate and disciplinary practices in the schools. The direct interventions with high-risk students did not reduce delinquent behavior, but did increase commitment to education as indicated by rates of dropout, retention, graduation, and standardized achievement test scores. The evidence supports the conclusion that the program has promise for reducing delinquency and its risk factors for the general population and for improving educational outcomes for high-risk individuals. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.     

PEER SIMILARITY IN DELINQUENCY FOR DIFFERENT TYPES OF FRIENDS: A COMPARISON USING TWO MEASUREMENT METHODS*

Peer similarity in delinquency has been studied extensively. But basic questions remain about measuring peer delinquency and how important the nature of relationships with delinquent peers is. This article uses data from the NSCR School Project, which has collected unusually detailed information about delinquent peers and the social networks of adolescents. We examine differences in the roles of regular friends and best friends with regard to peer similarity in delinquent behavior. We also contrast two methods of measuring peer delinquency: the conventional one of asking respondents about their peers, and the social network method, by which peers report about themselves. The results show that respondents can have best and regular friends who differ in their degree of delinquency, and that the association between respondent and peer delinquency does not differ much between friends and best friends. At the same time, our results suggest that both types of peers influence the level of respondent delinquency. Measures based on the direct network method resulted in higher estimates of peer delinquency, but in lower estimates of the association between respondent and peer delinquency.     

DELINQUENCY AND THE STRUCTURE OF ADOLESCENT PEER GROUPS*

Gangs and group‐level processes were once central phenomena for criminological theory and research. By the mid‐1970s, however, gang research primarily was displaced by studies of individual behavior using randomized self‐report surveys, a shift that also removed groups from the theoretical foreground. In this project, we return to the group level to test competing theoretical claims about delinquent group structure. We use network‐based clustering methods to identify 897 friendship groups in two ninth‐grade cohorts of 27 Pennsylvania and Iowa schools. We then relate group‐level measures of delinquency and drinking to network measures of group size, friendship reciprocity, transitivity, structural cohesion, stability, average popularity, and network centrality. We find significant negative correlations between group delinquency and all of our network measures, suggesting that delinquent groups are less solidary and less central to school networks than nondelinquent groups. Additional analyses, on the one hand, reveal that these correlations are explained primarily by other group characteristics, such as gender composition and socioeconomic status. Drinking behaviors, on the other hand, show net positive associations with most of the network measures, suggesting that drinking groups have a higher status and are more internally cohesive than nondrinking groups. Our findings shed light on a long‐standing criminological debate by suggesting that any structural differences between delinquent and nondelinquent groups are likely attributable to other characteristics coincidental with delinquency. In contrast, drinking groups seem to provide peer contexts of greater social capital and cohesion.     

THE DELINQUENCY OF CHILDREN BORN TO YOUNG MOTHERS: RESULTS FROM THE ROCHESTER YOUTH DEVELOPMENT STUDY*

This paper examines the relationship between a mother's age at first childbirth and the delinquent behavior of her children. Using data from the Rochester Youth Development Study (RYDS), an ongoing longitudinal study of adolescent development, we found that children born to mothers who began childbearing at a young age were more prone to general delinquency, violence, and arrest than were children born to mothers who began childbearing when they were older. This “early first‐birth effect” was far larger in white and Hispanic families than in African‐American families. Mediating analyses found that the early first‐birth effect was most attributable to the unstable composition of families in which early childbearing occurs. That said, a substantial portion of the effect remains unmediated.