Contents volume

Volume Contents

Contents volume     

Work Roles,Domestic Roles,and Marital Quality: Perceptions of Fairness Among Dual-Earner Couples

Previous studies on the role of spouses' perceptions of fairness within marriage have typically dealt with the effects of those within the realm of the division of household labor. Using data from the 1993 National Survey of Families and Households, this study posits that the predominance of dual-earner couples necessitates the consideration of perceptions of fairness in both spouses' paid labor and domestic roles. Issues of fairness are shown to significantly affect husbands' and wives' evaluations of marital quality, yet these effects are limited to a noncomparative form (e.g., wives' evaluations of marital quality are not substantially affected by husbands' perceptions of unfairness). Implications of these findings for contemporary couples are discussed.     

Linking the micro- and macro-level dimensions of lifestyle-routine activity and opportunity models of predatory victimization

This paper explores the importance of linking the micro- and macro-level dimensions of household and personal victimization. Specifically, we use the British Crime Survey, a nationally representative sample of 10,905 residents of England and Wales, to examine differences in victimization risk associated with demographic characteristics, lifestyle-routine activities, and community context. In general, victimization risk is highest for the young, the singles, and those who frequently go out at night or leave their homes empty. Independent of these individual-level effects, however, burglary victimization is directly related to community levels of primary (single)-individual households, family disruption, unemployment, and housing density, while personal theft is inversely related to community social cohesion (friendship networks, residential stability). Furthermore, personal theft is positively related to community street activity (i.e., rate at which residents go out at night on foot), regardless of individual-level lifestyle. The results thus support a multilevel opportunity model of predatory victimization.     

Methodological Sensitivities to Latent Class Analysis of Long-Term Criminal Trajectories

A recent and growing body of research has employed a semiparametric group-based approach to discover underlying developmental trajectories of crime. Enthusiasm for such latent class models has not been matched with robustness and sensitivity analyses to determine how conclusions from the method vary according to fundamental methodological problems that inhere in criminological data. Using a sample of 500 delinquent boys and their official crime counts from ages 7 to 70, this paper systematically addresses how three concerns in longitudinal research—(a) length of follow-up, (b) the inclusion of exposure time (incarceration), and (3) data on involuntary desistance through death—influence our inferences about developmental trajectories. While there is some evidence of stability, a comparison of group number, shape, and group assignment across varying conditions indicates that all three data considerations can alter trajectory attributes in important ways. More precisely, longer-term data on offending and the inclusion of incarceration and mortality information appear to be key pieces of information, especially when analyzing high-rate offending patterns.     

Sex differences in self-reported delinquency and official records: A multiple-group structural modeling approach

There has been a large increase in research in the last 10 years or so on the nature, extent, and causes of female delinquency, especially on how patterns differ from those of male delinquency. Few research efforts, however, have systematically examined sex differences in the reliability and construct validity of the most common technique used in causal research-the self—report method. The present study addresses this issue by empirically examining male-female differences in self-report reliabilities and the effect of the prevalence and incidence of delinquent behavior on official contact (i.e., arrest, court referrals). Multiple-group covriance structure models are employed to test hypotheses of measurement and structural invariance. The major conclusion is that while self-report measurement parameters (e.g., reliabilities) may differ, the structural link between the prevalence and incidence of delinquent behavior and official contact is generally invariant with respect to sex.