Examining the Reciprocal Nature of the Health-Violence Relationship: Results from a Nationally Representative Sample

The correlation between health and offending is typically regarded as the result of confounding factors such as socioeconomic status and drug use, with little consideration given to the plausibility of reciprocal effects. Using two waves of data collected on 14,738 adolescents from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), a simultaneous structural equations modeling approach was used to determine whether there is a symbiotic relationship between health and violence. Findings indicate that minor health problems have delayed effects on violence and that involvement in violence also negatively affects future health. Discussion centers on this reciprocal relationship, implications for future research, and public health and delinquency prevention policy.     

传统社会与现代社会未成年人犯罪治理模式比较研究

当前未成年人犯罪问题日趋显性化和严重化.借助美国学者赫希提出的影响未成年人犯罪的“依恋”、“奉献”、“卷入”和“信念”维度与布莱克的“法律合作”和“法律个人”分析框架,通过中国传统社会与现代社会两种类型未成年人治理模式的对比分析,发现当代中国未成年人犯罪治理模式在犯罪预防、不良行为和犯罪行为矫正以及犯罪后果消除方面有不同程度的不足和缺陷,而这些问题在传统家族治理模式下却得到较好的解决.建设有中国特色的未成年人犯罪问题治理机制,既要保证现代性的社会治理模式的适用,也要兼顾传统家族治理模式中的地方性经验,关键在于建立未成年人法律合作组织、延伸未成年人矫正机构的职能、加强知行结合的未成年人道德品行教育以及补充完善未成年人法律规范等.     

Evidence for the crime drop: survey findings from two Finnish cities between 1992 and 2013

In this article, results from self-report studies in two Finnish cities, Helsinki and Turku, are presented. The aims are to compare the prevalence of youth crime between these cities and changes in delinquency during the observation period. In Helsinki, the surveys took place in 1992, 2006 and 2013, and in Turku, the surveys took place in 1992, 2001, and 2013. With the exception of the Turku 2001 survey, all datasets have been collected under the auspices of the International Self-Report Delinquency Study (ISRD). The most recent survey, ISRD3, targeted comprehensive school pupils from grades 7–9 (ages 13–16), while some of the former studies excluded 7th and/or 8th grades. The results show that (1) the delinquency rates are generally higher in Helsinki than in Turku and (2) the prevalence of both property- and violence-related crimes has decreased, while drug use manifested fluctuating or increasing trends. Overall, the findings are consistent with the observation that there has been a relatively general crime drop in the Western world since the 1990s.     

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.     

A Partial Test of Moffitt’s Developmental Taxonomy: Examining the Role of Genetic Risk

A developing line of research indicates that behavioral patterns associated with the typologies identified in Moffitt’s developmental taxonomy may be influenced by genetic factors. Based on these findings, the current study examines whether Moffitt’s etiological explanations of life-course persistent offenders, adolescence-limited offenders, and abstainers have merit after controlling for genetic influences. To do so, a sample of twins drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health were examined. The results revealed that genetic influences significantly predicted entry into each of the typologies identified by Moffitt even after controlling for theoretically relevant factors. Implications of the findings and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Testing the Influence of Community Characteristics on School Misconduct

This study examines the effect of dynamic and structural community characteristics on school misconduct. Data include over 45,000 students in the eighth, tenth, or twelfth grade in 237 schools. Hierarchical linear models tested the direct and interactive effects of community measures, while accounting for student and school characteristics. Community substance abuse norms as well as perceptions of community crime and disorder mediated the influence of concentrated disadvantage on school misconduct. Interaction effects demonstrated that community substance abuse norms were more influential for students enrolled in schools that had a less positive school climate although individual and school characteristics remained robust predictors of school misconduct. School misconduct is influenced by the characteristics of the surrounding community and school context, as well as the interaction between those contexts. Research relying on census data measures of community characteristics may underestimate community influence on school misconduct, and omit proximal community influences on school misconduct.     

Are Girls Getting Tougher,or Are We Tougher on Girls? Probability of Arrest and Juvenile Court Oversight in 1980 and 2000

Girls suspected or convicted of assaults make up an increasing proportion of juvenile arrests and court caseloads. There is indication that changes in domestic violence arrest policies, school handling of student rules infractions, and practices of charging youth for assaults rather than status offenses account for these trends. To determine whether girls were treated more harshly for assaults after these policies changed, the present study compared the probabilities of conviction and institutionalization, net of the effect of self-reported attacks on persons, for 1980 and 2000. Data were from the National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth 1979 and 1997 cohorts. Girls experienced a unique increase in the probabilities of justice system involvement that was replicated only for Black males. The increase was magnified for Black girls. Additional research is needed to better connect specific policies to drawing selected subgroups more deeply into the justice system and on the consequences for affected youth.     

社会管理创新视域下未成年人犯罪刑事政策研究

对于未成年人给予特殊的照顾和关怀是世界各国的共识。在刑事政策方面,多数国家都很重视对于未成年犯罪人的教育、矫治。我国在社会管理创新视域下,对于未成年人犯罪刑事政策应当从定罪政策、刑罚政策以及执行政策三个方面进行全面的改革和完善。在借鉴国外先进立法例的前提下,结合我国的实际情况,建立符合我国国情的少年司法制度。     

Juvenile perpetrators of race/ethnicity-based bias crimes

Most bias crime literature focuses on adults despite the fact that youth account for a large proportion of prejudice-motivated violence. The LA County Commission on Human Relations data for all bias crimes from 2002-2008 was used to examine similarities and differences between adult and youth suspects of bias-motivated crimes. Findings showed youth victims of racial bias crimes were 12 times more likely to be targeted by youth suspects and over five times more likely to commit property offenses. Public places were nearly three times more likely than resident places to be the location of the bias crime by youth suspects. Female perpetrators of racial bias crimes were two times more likely to be youths. Implications of the findings are discussed.     

Psychometric properties of the inventory of callous-unemotional traits short version (ICU-12) among detained female juvenile offenders and community youths*

The presence of callous-unemotional (CU) traits delineates a subgroup of male youth with severe conduct problems and antisocial behavior. To date however, existing research into these features among females is markedly limited. Drawing on 377 female adolescents (103 selected from forensic settings and 274 selected from school settings) from Portugal, the current study is the first to simultaneously examine the psychometric properties of the 12-item shortened version of the Inventory of Callous-Unemotional Traits (ICU-12) in incarcerated and community female youth. Results provide support for the construct validity and reliability of the ICU-12 among this unique sample. Findings from this study also reveal evidence of convergent and discriminant validity with a number of theoretically relevant constructs (e.g. psychopathic features, aggression, and substance use). Clinical implications for using the ICU-12 with females are discussed.