Deploying police officers, known as school resource officers (SROs), in schools is a popular school crime prevention strategy. This study tested whether specific SRO roles, rather than the presence or absence of SROs, influenced school crime and reporting of crimes to law enforcement differently. Specifically, schools with officers serving a law enforcement only role as well as those with officers who also teach and/or mentor ("mixed SROs"), were compared with schools without officers. The study used a longitudinal sample (N = 480) from the School Survey on Crime and Safety for the years 2004, 2006, and 2008. Results suggest that the level of crime recording and reporting generally increased with SRO presence. Further, schools with law enforcement only SROs recorded more crimes than non-SRO schools, and contrary to hypotheses, schools with mixed SROs reported more crimes to law enforcement. Future research should expand on the typology of SROs used in this study.
Despite an abundance of research on serious and violent juvenile offenders, few studies have linked juvenile offending career categories to juvenile court risk assessments and future offending. This study uses juvenile court referrals and assessment data to replicate earlier categorizations of serious, violent, and chronic offenders; to examine risk and protective score differences across these categories; and to assess whether risk and protective score constructs differentially predict adult criminality across these offender categories. Based on a sample of 9,859 juvenile offenders who aged out of Connecticut’s juvenile justice system between 2005 and 2009, we found that (1) our categorization of juvenile career types mirrored earlier work, (2) comparing risk and protective factors across and within juvenile career types identified distinct patterns, and (3) the juvenile risk and protective assessment subscales were not predictive of adult arrests for chronic offenders but were predictive for nonchronic juvenile career types.
Much prior research has demonstrated that race and ethnicity are associated with harsher punishment outcomes among adult defendants in the criminal court. However, few studies have explored these disparities in the sentencing of juvenile offenders who have been transferred to the adult court, and this research has reported conflicting findings. Moreover, the ways in which offenders’ race and ethnicity may interact with their sex, age, and offense type have yet to be explored among this population. Analysis of defendants sentenced in Florida (N = 30,913) reveals that Black transferred juveniles are more likely to be sentenced to jail or prison and are given longer prison sentences than Whites, but Hispanic youth are only penalized in the sentence to jail. Interaction analyses suggest that Black males are sentenced particularly harshly regardless of age, and the effects of race and ethnicity are conditioned by a violent, sex, or drug offense.
The Dark Triad is represented by three interrelated personality characteristics thought to share a "dark core"—that is, to be associated with a range of negative outcomes. We investigate this link alongside another potent predictor of crime, low self-control. Our analyses found the Dark Triad was strongly predictive of delinquency, especially violent delinquency, where it accounted for the effects of self-control. Yet it exerted no significant effect on drug-based delinquency. However, an interaction between the Dark Triad and low self-control remained substantive and predictive across all models, where low self-control amplified the effects of the Dark Triad on delinquency.
Although the use of financial penalties is pervasive in the justice system, there has been limited (and mostly dated) empirical research that has investigated the effect of financial costs incurred by juvenile offenders and the extent to which such costs relate to the likelihood of recidivism and reintegration into society. This study uses data from a large cohort of adolescent offenders to examine how demographics and case characteristics relate to financial penalties imposed by the justice system and the degree to which such monetary penalties are related to recidivism in a 2-year follow-up. Results suggest that financial penalties increase the likelihood of recidivism. Study limitations and directions for future research are also discussed.
Each year in the United States, as many as 100,000 juvenile offenders are released after completing a residential placement. A significant task for researchers is to identify the factors that explain variations in recidivism. This study considers this by evaluating the predictive validity of the Residential Positive Achievement Change Tool (R-PACT), a fourth-generation risk assessment instrument adopted by Florida for use in all of its juvenile residential facilities. The R-PACT includes a wide variety of static and dynamic risk and needs scales that are used here to predict reoffending among 4,700 released juvenile offenders in Florida. We devote special attention to (1) whether R-PACT scales typically predict reoffending and (2) whether the R-PACT’s predictive validity varies across different subgroups of offenders. In considering these questions, we also consider whether the predictive risk and protective factors in prior research are predictive in the R-PACT as well. The analysis revealed relatively strong support for the R-PACT, but there were nuanced exceptions to that pattern. We discuss the implications these findings have for assessing risk, monitoring progress among residential youth, and predicting reoffending.
Members of hidden or hard-to-survey populations present challenges to social scientists seeking to engage them in empirical studies, especially if those efforts are longitudinal. In this article, we document the retention-related successes and failures of a longitudinal, social network-based study of active and desisting street gang members in Philadelphia, PA, and the District of Columbia. A purposive sample was used to identify and track 229 gang members at three points in time over 2 years to explore how the social networks of gang members change. Although gang members have many factors in common with other hidden populations, their criminal behavior and involvement with the justice system, coupled with the sensitivity of the social network survey questions for this study, created hurdles to maintaining research contact over time. With continued and systematic documentation of successes and challenges, academics can build an extensive backdrop from which to continue to study gang youth. If the field cannot devise cost-effective and transferable ways to study gangs beyond single-gang ethnographies, it will limit its understanding of important processes related to gang behavior, including gang joining and desistance.
Previous research on bullying has demonstrated that youth who engage in bullying and are also victims of bullying are at increased risk for maladjustment. Somewhat less investigated are the correlates of—and consequences associated with—this small group of persons who are simultaneously perpetrators and victims of bullying, commonly referred to as bully-victims. This article extends prior research by investigating bully-victims in a sample of serious adolescent offenders (n = 1,354) who were followed for 7 years after their adjudication for a serious juvenile offense. Analyses indicated that bully-victims had high levels of both symptomology and psychopathy as well as lower levels of temperance. Bully-victims were at increased risk of experiencing a higher number of arrests at the end of the 7-year follow-up period. Implications for future research are highlighted.
Although evidence exists that bully victimizations are related to a range of negative outcomes later in the life course, existing research has largely ignored the timing of the victimization experience. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, the present study uses propensity score matching to investigate the adult consequences of victims experiencing repeated bullying in childhood, adolescence, or both developmental periods. Individuals victimized as children reported higher instances of arrests, convictions, violence, and substance use than child nonvictims. The results point to the importance of implementing effective prevention programs early in the life course.
This study examined how detained youths’ (N = 98) actual experiences with the law, including frequency of contact with the police and knowledge about the Miranda warning and interrogation practices, relate to their perceptions of support, fairness, and trust toward the police. Results show that more police contacts were associated with lower perceived obligation to obey the law and higher cynicism toward the law and also moderated the relationships between age and police legitimacy and race/ethnicity and police legitimacy and procedural justice. Comprehension of the Miranda warning was associated with lower perceived obligation to obey the law and procedural justice, and knowledge about police interrogation practices was associated with lower perceived police legitimacy. These findings suggest the potential of legal socialization as a mechanism for intervention among offending adolescents; programs that promote positive youth–police interactions may help minimize negative attitudes and foster perceptions of trust and fairness toward the police.
Research has generally supported the effectiveness of restorative justice (RJ) programs on a number of outcomes; however, little research has examined the effectiveness of variations in the intervention. This study examined several variations of an RJ program for juvenile offenders, including direct mediation, indirect forms of victim/offender mediation accomplished without direct victim/offender contact, the use of community panels (i.e., with community representatives when no direct victim was available), and a group who received only minimal interaction with RJ staff. Results supported the effectiveness of a number of variations in program implementation. Implications for future research and potential improvements to the RJ model are discussed.
Despite the wealth of knowledge on subclass formation for antisocial behavior among youth from the United States and other Western industrialized countries, very little is known about the subclass structure for antisocial behavior among youth growing up in other geographical contexts. Using validated measures of aggression, psychopathy, and low self-control, we employ latent class analysis to identify latent subgroups of antisocial behavior from a sample of 324 Saudi Arabian youth. Three classes of antisocial behavior emerged and significant associations between latent class membership and different forms of delinquency were observed. The findings are the first to show a similar pattern of latent class formation for antisocial behavior and risk for violent and nonviolent delinquency among Saudi Arabian youth compared to U.S. youth.
Prior efforts suggest that adverse community contexts have the ability to impact juvenile recidivism. However, far less research has examined the indirect effects of community disadvantage on delinquent youth reoffending. As a result, it remains unclear whether several theoretically relevant mechanisms mediate the effects of disadvantage on continued delinquent behavior. Drawing from theoretical models of contextual effects, as well as social control theory, the present study examines whether prosocial bonds are salient mechanisms in the context–recidivism relationship. Using a sample of over 20,000 juvenile offenders, our results indicate that both prosocial relationships and prosocial activities partially mediate the effect of community disadvantage on youth reoffending. Findings from the current study are discussed, along with policy implications and directions for future research in this area.
Many past studies have observed evidence of sibling similarity and influence for delinquency and substance use. However, studies of sibling similarity for adolescent weapon carrying, particularly for weapons beyond firearms, are largely absent from the literature. The present study assesses sibling similarity in weapon carrying as well as the relative contributions of genetics, shared environment, and nonshared environment. Data are obtained from the first two waves of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health and analyzed using biometrical genetic models for twins and actor–partner interdependence models for nontwins. Results indicate little, if any, contribution stemming from genetics. There is also no evidence of a significant shared environment effect. Instead, all or nearly all of the variation and similarity in weapon carrying among siblings are related to the nonshared environment, particularly gang affiliation. Implications and possible extensions of these findings are discussed.
This article examines the relationship between types of social isolation and violent delinquency. Deriving hypotheses from elements of general strain theory, we test whether the isolation–violence relationship varies across different types of isolated youth when compared to sociable youth. We also test whether other negative experiences and circumstances (types of social strain) associated with adolescence moderate the relationship between isolation types and violent delinquency. Using the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, we find that different types of social isolation had varying effects on violent delinquency. Socially disinterested youth show a greater capacity for violent behavior, but other types of marginalized youth showed no difference in violence when compared to sociable youth. Results also demonstrate that some types of strain moderate the isolation–violence relationship. The implications of these findings for research on peer relations, adolescent strain, and violence are discussed.
The purpose of this study was to test the moral model of criminal lifestyle development with data from the 1,725-member (918 boys and 807 girls) National Youth Survey. It was hypothesized that peer delinquency would predict proactive criminal thinking but not deviant identity as part of a four-variable chain running from peer delinquency to participant delinquency. Consistent with this hypothesis, the pathway running from peer delinquency to proactive criminal thinking to deviant identity to participant delinquency was significant but the pathway running from peer delinquency to deviant identity to proactive criminal thinking to participant delinquency was not. Deviant identity nonetheless predicted proactive criminal thinking and delinquency. These results support a major pathway in the moral model and indicate that while deviant identity plays a role in antisocial development, it is as a cause and effect of proactive criminal thinking rather than as an effect of delinquent peer associations.
Childhood aggression consistently predicts delinquency during adolescence, but research in this area reveals exceptions, with some highly aggressive children becoming relatively nondelinquent adolescents. This directs attention to the factors that explain why early aggression is sometimes not followed by later delinquency. This study considers that parenting marked by attachment, consistent monitoring, and the avoidance of harshness and hostility may be one such factor. This is considered with data from a sample of roughly 800 U.S. families, with analyses focused on 217 youth who were highest in aggression at 4–7 years of age. The analysis revealed substantial variation among aggressive youth in the quality of parenting that they received from ages 9 to 12. This variation helped explain variation in age 15 delinquency, with this relationship being mediated by adolescent levels of school bonds, susceptibility to peer pressure, and low self-control. We discuss the implications of these findings for theory, future research, and policy efforts to reduce delinquency among aggressive and antisocial children.
The concept of self-control has been used to account for a wide variety of outcomes, both criminal and otherwise. Recently, researchers have started investigating associations between parental self-control and family functioning. This study expands this area of research by assessing the extent to which parental low self-control and official involvement in juvenile delinquency is associated with parental exasperation among a sample of parents (N = 101) whose children have been processed through a juvenile justice assessment facility. The results indicate that parents who are lower in self-control and whose children have had more extensive involvement in officially recorded delinquency report greater exasperation regarding their children. In addition, the data indicate the effect of parental low self-control on parental exasperation is stronger at higher levels of delinquent behavior. The implications of the study and directions for future research are discussed.
Despite a wealth of research finding that adolescents who carry handguns are involved in risky behaviors, there has been little exploration into the heterogeneity of this behavior. Using a pooled sample of 12- to 17-year-olds from the National Study on Drug Use and Health who report past-year handgun carrying (N = 7,872), this study identified four subgroups of handgun carriers: low risk (n = 3,831; 47.93%), alcohol and marijuana users (n = 1,591; 20.16%), fighters (n = 1,430; 19.40%), and severe externalizers (n = 1,020, 12.51%). These subgroups differed on demographic, behavioral, and psychosocial characteristics. Findings are discussed in light of prevention and focused deterrence.
Research from multiple disciplines has reported that exposure to childhood traumatic events, often referred to as adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), increases an individual’s chances of experiencing a wide variety of negative consequences such as chronic disease, unemployment, and involvement in serious, violent, and chronic offending. The current study assesses how protective factors from social bonds may moderate the relationship between ACEs and future offending in a sample of high-risk adjudicated youth. While results showed that increased ACE exposure led to a higher likelihood of rearrest and more social bonds lowered the likelihood of rearrest, in contrast to expectations, the analyses revealed that stronger social bonds did not reduce the deleterious effects of exposure to more types of ACEs on recidivism. A discussion of these findings is offered, along with study limitations and future directions.
Youth violence is a costly social problem. This study compared the risk and needs of nonviolent youth offenders, with those who had committed violent offenses only (violent only) and those who had committed violent and nonviolent offenses (violent plus) to determine whether violent youth were a different "type" from nonviolent youth. The case files of 3,744 youth offenders (3,327 males and 417 females, between 12 and 18 years old) were retrospectively coded, before official recidivism records were obtained. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), 2, and Cox regressions were conducted. Violent-plus youth were younger; higher in their total risk and all criminogenic needs; more likely to have several noncriminogenic needs; and at higher risk of any reoffending, violent reoffending, and nonviolent reoffending than nonviolent youth. Violent-only youth had the same total risk and risk of general and violent recidivism as nonviolent offenders but presented different criminogenic and noncriminogenic needs and risk of nonviolent recidivism. Compared to violent-only youth, violent-plus youth were younger, had higher total risk and criminogenic needs on five domains, were more likely to have several noncriminogenic needs, and were at higher risk of all types of reoffending (except sexual reoffending), suggesting subtypes of violent youth offenders. The implication is that nonviolent and violent youth offenders require different dosage and types of intervention.
The ability for professionals to override the results of an actuarial risk assessment tool is an essential part of effective correctional risk classification; however, little is known about how this important function affects the predictive validity of these tools. Using data from a statewide sample of juveniles from Ohio, this study examined the impact of professional adjustments on the predictive validity of a juvenile risk assessment instrument. This study found that the original and adjusted risk levels were significant predictors of recidivism, but the original risk levels were stronger predictors of recidivism than the adjusted risk levels that accounted for overrides.
Drawing on Bandura’s self-efficacy theory, the current study investigates the relationship between individuals’ perceived self-efficacy of avoiding unsafe situations and fear of violence in a neighborhood context. Specifically, it is hypothesized that adolescents who report higher levels of street efficacy are less likely to exhibit fear of violence than adolescents who report lower levels of street efficacy. Using panel data from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods, the authors estimate a series of multilevel ordinal logistic regression models to explain the relationship between street efficacy and fear of violence controlling for both individual-level and neighborhood-level covariates. The results confirm the hypothesis that adolescents’ prior street efficacy is negatively associated with subsequent fear of violence. The current study suggests that a social cognitive perspective should be incorporated into the fear of crime literature. Policy implications of the findings are discussed, along with suggestions for future research.
This study examines the usefulness of self-reported psychopathy scores in predicting various antisocial outcomes in a sample of detained girls (n = 95, Mage = 16.25). Psychopathic traits at baseline were measured by the Antisocial Process Screening Device (APSD). Other self-report tools were completed at baseline and 6 months after discharge to assess violent and nonviolent offending, reactive and proactive aggression, and alcohol/drug use. Only occasionally a significant relationship between the APSD total score and these antisocial outcomes was revealed, though the APSD total score did never remain a significant predictor after controlling for past offenses, aggression, and alcohol/drug use. Altogether, these findings suggest that the APSD total score is of restricted usefulness in predicting antisocial outcomes among detained girls. This overall conclusion is consistent with past research using the APSD and other tools and suggests that one should rethink the role of psychopathy measures for risk assessment purposes among detained youths.
Despite evidence suggesting proactive responses to youth crime are advantageous, juvenile justice relies heavily on punitive practices. This discrepancy is in part affected by public preferences for retribution, which are skewed by sensationalized media portrayals of youth crime. This experiment (N = 174) explores how youth crime media exposure translates into retributive attitudes by testing the hypothesis that media portrayals of school shootings increase retributive attitudes indirectly through either dehumanization or mortality salience. Statistical analyses suggest that dehumanization mediates the relationship between school-shooting media portrayals and retributive attitudes toward crime-involved youths. To promote support of less retributive juvenile justice policies, advocates may benefit by focusing emphasis on humanizing elements of young offenders.
Low self-control has emerged as a ubiquitous predictor of a range of behaviors and life outcomes, including criminal and analogous behaviors. Evidence linking self-control to criminal conduct, moreover, has also emerged from several cross-cultural studies. While important, cross-cultural studies remain limited in number and in scope. Extending empirical investigations into the effects of self-control cross-culturally, we present findings from data collected from Saudi Arabian high school youth. Low self-control was a substantive predictor of self-reported delinquency, violent behavior (VB), victimization, and delinquent peer associations for males and females. The effects of low self-control were found to be substantive, general, and invariant across sex within a culture that practices sex segregation and one that embraces harsh punishments for violent conduct.
Mental health problems among youth in the juvenile justice system are of particular concern given their high prevalence rate. The current study applies attribution theory and focal concerns to examine how mental health problems influence the judicial decision to commit youth to confinement. Furthermore, the study examines whether the effect of mental health problems is conditioned by race and ethnicity, hypothesizing that minorities with mental health problems will be treated more severely than Whites with mental health problems. Using administrative court records from Maricopa County, AZ (n = 5,501), findings reveal that mental health problems increased the likelihood of confinement, and this effect was moderated by race. Implications for theory and policy are discussed.
Current theory and practice dictates the use of risk/needs assessment to guide programming to reduce reoffending. Limited research has examined assessment change scores and recidivism, none examining whether such changes moderate the effects of deleterious community contexts. We examine a multiyear statewide sample of juvenile offenders returning to the community from residential placement (N = 12,302). We address whether changes in dynamic risk/needs scores predict official recidivism upon return, community socioeconomic contexts predict recidivism, and which risk/needs changes moderate the effects of context. Findings reveal 6 of the 17 change scores affect reoffending, context matters, and some change scores moderate contextual effects.
Using hierarchical generalized linear modeling and the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods data, the authors examine whether different types of guardianship protect youth against exposure to violence in the neighborhood while controlling for situations where exposure is most likely to occur. Protective family management practices and internal locus of control significantly reduce exposure to community violence. Contrary to expectations, however, neighborhood collective efficacy exerted no effect. The findings emphasize the importance of considering family management practices and individual characteristics as protective factors against harmful environments. Further, guardianship is not restricted to external informal agents of control.
This study examines the effect of negative emotionality, effortful control, and community disadvantage on juvenile recidivism. Using DeLisi and Vaughn’s temperament theory as a foundation, we assess whether youth who have temperament issues and those who live in disadvantaged communities are more likely to recidivate. Findings indicate that net of a wide array of known risk factors, youth with poor temperaments, and those living in disadvantaged communities are more likely to reoffend. Additionally, those youth who face a triple threat of temperament issues and disadvantage reoffend faster post-completion. The theoretical and policy implications of these findings are discussed.
While much existing research has examined either juvenile or adult weapon carrying, this study assesses whether carrying a weapon to school as a juvenile is predictive of bringing a handgun to school or work in adulthood. Data are drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Results show a decline in weapon carrying behavior over time. However, youth who report school weapon carrying in adolescence are much more likely to report carrying a handgun to school or work in adulthood. Findings also demonstrate that victimization, rather than offending behavior, is predictive of adulthood handgun carrying at school and work.
The purpose of the study was to examine prospective childhood risk factors for gang involvement across the course of adolescence among a large 8-year longitudinal sample of 646 Indigenous (i.e., American Indian and Canadian First Nations) youth residing on reservation/reserve land in the Midwest of the United States and Canada. Risk factors at the first wave of the study (ages 10–12) were used to predict gang involvement (i.e., gang membership and initiation) in subsequent waves (ages 11–18). A total of 6.7% of the participants reported gang membership and 9.1% reported gang initiation during the study. Risk factors were distributed across developmental domains (e.g., family, school, peer, and individual) with those in the early delinquency domain having the strongest and most consistent effects. Moreover, the results indicate that the cumulative number of risk factors in childhood increases the probability of subsequent gang involvement. Culturally relevant implications and prevention/intervention strategies are discussed.
This study investigated differences in the use of authoritarian parenting (AP), a race socialization practice among high-risk African American parents and compared it to authoritative parenting (ATP) a style found efficacious for White adolescents. Data from the Rochester Youth Development Study are used inclusive of African American (n = 413) and White (n = 114) adolescents. Risk for delinquency is measured by six factors. ATP includes parental responsiveness and monitoring, and AP added restrictive parental control. Multivariate regression models were used to assess main and interaction effects of the parenting styles with cumulative risk. Findings indicated ATP is a racially and class invariant child rearing style that reduces delinquency.
Moffitt’s taxonomy remains an influential theoretical framework within criminology. Despite much empirical scrutiny, comparatively less time has been spent testing the snares component of Moffitt’s work. Specifically, are there factors that might engender continued criminal involvement for individuals otherwise likely to desist? The current study tested whether gang membership increased the odds of contact with the justice system for each of the offender groups specified in Moffitt’s original developmental taxonomy. Our findings provided little evidence that gang membership increased the odds of either adolescence-limited or life-course persistent offenders being processed through the criminal justice system. Moving forward, scholars may wish to shift attention to alternative variables—beyond gang membership—when testing the snares hypothesis.
The purpose of this study was to determine whether inductive parenting is capable of reducing delinquent peer influence. This hypothesis was tested using the first four waves (1976–1979) and all 1,725 (918 boys and 807 girls) members of the National Youth Survey (NYS). Inductive parenting was scored from 6 dichotomous items completed by a parent at Wave 1. Peer influence and selection were based on measures of peer and own delinquency completed by adolescent members of the NYS. As predicted, the pathway from inductive parenting to peer influence was significant and the pathway from inductive parenting to peer selection was not, although the two pathways were not significantly different from one another. These results suggest that inductive parenting exerts a small but potentially important effect on peer influence and may be one way of preventing the proactive or instrumental criminality believed to be transmitted through the peer influence process.
Mental health screening data (Massachusetts Youth Screening Instrument version 2 [MAYSI-2]) and offense history were used to study levels of suicidal ideation in a sample of juvenile arrestees held in a large, urban detention center located in a predominately Hispanic Southwestern U.S. city. We used t-tests and multinomial logistic regression to examine the relationships with particular attention to temporal issues. Results indicated that offense history, the timing of arrests, and demographics did influence levels of suicide ideation. We discuss these findings, strengths and limitations, and directions for future research.
Emerging psychopathy in youth is often identified by the presence of callous-unemotional traits, while variants of psychopathy are recognized to exist in either primary or secondary form. These variants have been differentially associated with aggressive behavior, as well as dissimilarly motivated (instrumental, reactionary). The present research evaluates those resembling the variants and the qualities of aggression associated with them in a noninstitutionalized sample of youth. Findings suggest that youth resembling the secondary variant demonstrate higher expression of instrumental and reactive aggression compared to the primary-like variants and non-variants. This finding held when scrutinized against other covariates in the noninstitutionalized sample. Further distinctions based on variant type are discussed.
This study tested the hypothesis that male role models inhibit delinquent peer selection but not delinquent peer influence in adolescent boys, whereas female role models inhibit delinquent peer selection but not delinquent peer influence in adolescent girls. On analyzing longitudinal data from 425 boys and 425 girls, it was discovered that a role model index (1 = biological parent, 2 = other role model, 3 = no role model) correlated significantly with subsequent offending in both sexes. After controlling for the effects of age, race, parental marital status, and caregiver deviance, male and female versions of the role model index—male role model (MRM) and female role model (FRM)—predicted peer selection but not peer influence in boys and girls, respectively. These results suggest that same-sex role models are capable of protecting youth against peer selection but have little apparent impact on peer influence or socialization.
There is a growing literature suggesting that childhood-onset behavioral problems have negative long-term effects on multiple life domains, including poor physical and mental health, substance use, interpersonal conflict, and domestic violence. The current study extends this line of research by assessing the association between childhood-onset behavioral problems and later violent victimization. Using a sample of serious juvenile offenders, the study shows that individuals with childhood-onset behavioral problems are at an elevated risk of encountering violent victimization during adolescence and early adulthood. Results suggest that childhood-onset does not directly lead to later victimization; instead, a mediating process that involves children’s continuing involvement in delinquency/criminal activities and association with deviant peers ultimately put these youth into high-risk situations.
This article reports on the results of a systematic review and meta-analysis of the effects of after-school programs (ASPs) on delinquency. Mixed results from some well-known evaluations, a wide range of modalities, and continued interest in and demand for this social intervention motivated this review. A rigorous criteria for inclusion of studies was developed, comprehensive search strategies were employed to identify eligible studies (published and unpublished), and a protocol was followed for coding of key study features. Meta-analytic techniques were used to assess the impact of ASPs on delinquency and investigate study features associated with variation in effects. Seventeen studies—based on 17 independent samples—met the inclusion criteria. All but two of the studies were multimodal, involving primary and secondary interventions. Studies could be grouped into one of the three primary intervention types: academic, recreation, and skills training/mentoring. There was evidence that ASPs had a small but nonsignificant effect on delinquency, with a weighted mean d = 0.062 (95% confidence interval: [–0.098, 0.223]). Moderator analyses indicated that not one of the intervention types was associated with a significant effect on delinquency. Nothing in the present review suggests that ASPs—of any type—should be discontinued. But business as usual does not seem in order for ASPs with a focus on delinquency prevention. Several research priorities could go some way toward addressing this, including further high-quality evaluations targeted on the three main types of ASPs and a special focus on program fidelity.
Developmental criminologists have criticized typologies of juvenile sex offenders (JSOs) for assuming that JSOs involved in nonsexual offending are a homogenous group. However, this criticism has remained largely conceptual. To help empirically address the validity of this criticism, offending trajectories from age 12 to 23 were measured for a sample of male JSOs (n = 52) and juvenile nonsex offenders (JNSOs; n = 231) interviewed as part of the Incarcerated Serious and Violent Young Offender study. Within this predominantly Caucasian sample, whether offender status (JSO/JNSO) or risk factors were better indicators of trajectory group membership was examined. Four unique offending trajectories emerged, namely, a low-rate offending trajectory, a bell-shaped offending trajectory, a slow-rising chronic trajectory, and a high-rate chronic trajectory. The relatively equal distribution of JSOs in each trajectory indicated that the criminal behavior committed by this group was not expressed by just one pattern. Further, the prevalence of JSOs in each trajectory mirrored the prevalence of JNSOs in the same trajectory, suggesting that having a sex offense in adolescence was not informative of general offending patterns. Individual and familial-level risk/needs factors were better indicators of trajectory membership. Implications for existing typologies of JSOs are discussed.
Although Hirschi’s social bonds theory, especially the attachment component, has received a large amount of empirical support in the literature, research has not clarified whether it matters if the juvenile is attached to his or her mother or his or her father. This study addresses this issue by analyzing the impact of three attachment measures—the juveniles’ perceived attachment to their mother, their father, and both parents combined—on self-reported delinquency using a nationally representative data source. Cross-sectional and longitudinal results reveal mixed results. A discussion of the results and directions for future research are presented.
The interrelatedness of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) in 64,329 juvenile offenders was examined. ACEs include childhood abuse (physical, emotional, and sexual), neglect (physical and emotional), and household dysfunction (family violence, family substance use, family mental illness, separation/divorce, and family incarceration). Prevalence ranged from 12% to 82% for each ACE. Of youth experiencing one ACE 67.5% reported four or more additional exposures and 24.5% exposure to six or more additional ACEs. Females have higher prevalence and multiple exposures. ACEs are interrelated, necessitating assessment of multiple ACEs rather than one or a few. ACE exposure differs by gender and race/ethnicity.
The number of school resource officers (SROs) placed at schools has increased dramatically. These officers are tasked with making schools safer, yet the effect of interacting with SROs on students’ feelings of safety needs more investigation. To address this need, 1,956 middle and high school students were surveyed. Latent class analysis identified two groups of students, one who felt safe and another who did not. Regression showed that interacting with SROs was unrelated to these feelings of safety; instead, African American students and victimized students felt less safe while males, students with more school connectedness, and students with more positive attitudes about SROs felt safer.
Individual-level attitudes about drugs are strong predictors of substance use among adolescents, and aggregate-level community norms regarding deviancy and drug use may influence youth attitudes as well as their drug use. This study examined the direct effects of neighborhood norms about deviance, disadvantage, immigrant concentration, and residential stability on youths’ attitudes about drug harmfulness as well as their variety of past month substance use. The moderating effect of community norms on the relationship between youth attitudes and drug use was also examined. Results suggest that community norms favorable to deviance and drug use reduced youth’s attitudes that drugs were harmful. Further, youth’s perceptions of drug harmfulness significantly reduced their substance use in the past month. Neighborhood concentrated immigration also significantly reduced substance use. Finally, living in areas where norms were favorable to deviance enhanced the protective effect of youths’ perceptions. Implications for research and substance use prevention strategies are discussed.
Placing youth in detention centers has the potential to generate negative educational and behavioral consequences. Recognizing this problem, scholars and juvenile justice policy makers and practitioners have searched for viable alternatives during the past two decades. One alternative promoted by the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative is the evening reporting center (ERC). Although promoted as a promising practice, little is known about the ERC’s operational design and effectiveness. This research note explores the ERC through site visits at seven locations across the United States. Data from the site visits are integrated with evidence-based literature to provide suggestions for examining the need for the ERC, creating a model design, and evaluating the program.
While there is much research on the continuity of drug use over the life course, these studies tend not to consider the intersections of drug use continuity with offending in general and violence in particular. The current study uses data from 411 South London males who were participants in the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development to investigate these associations from adolescence to age 50. Results suggest that the prevalence of drug use continuity (e.g., drug use in adolescence and adulthood) is rather high (45.4%) and that variability in drug use is differentially related to nonviolent offending and involvement in violence specifically. In this vein, the most pronounced relationship surrounding differential involvement in drug use is the association between drug use continuity and nonviolent offending and violence. Individual and environmental risk factors are also relevant predictors of nonviolent offending and violence. Study limitations and directions for future research are also discussed.
Researchers and the public have devoted increasing attention over the past few years to the issue of school punishment and security. Racial disproportionality in school suspension and arrests at school and the resulting "school-to-prison pipeline" have been the most visible concerns. Others have questioned whether excessive school punishment might contribute to problems at school such as a negative school social climate, student alienation, and increased rates of student misbehavior. In this article, we contribute to the growing body of research on this topic by exploring whether students’ negative perceptions of school rules, punishments, and security practices relate to a previously unexplored potential consequence, that is, rates of bullying victimization. Using the 2009 School Crime Supplement to the National Crime Victimization Survey, we find that students who perceive school rules as unfair and poorly communicated are indeed at greater risk of bullying victimization, relative to other students.
This study estimates the dose–response relationship between the time spent in an intensive, therapeutic treatment program during juvenile incarceration and violent juvenile offenders’ odds of recidivism. A propensity score matching approach is used to determine the treatment effect of a strong and weak dose of this program on recidivism. Analyses reveal that program participants who receive any dose of this program exhibit lower odds of recidivism than nonparticipants. Those who received a stronger dose of treatment are significantly less likely to recidivate during the three years following release than those who received no treatment. This effect grows in magnitude when compared with those who receive a weak dose. The efficacy of this program’s treatment model provides the evidence that, compared to a weak dose, rehabilitation of capital and violent juvenile offenders is more feasible within the venue of juvenile incarceration when treatment is provided to a high-risk population via an intensive dose.
There is minimal research that has investigated the characteristics distinguishing youth who commit murder to other juvenile offenders. Of the research that has been done, scholars have identified a wide variety of factors that distinguish these offenders, including poor family environments, emotional and social problems, poor mental health, and behavioral disorders. Using data from Pathways to Desistance, a study of 1,354 serious youthful offenders, we examined how 8 demographic characteristics and 35 risk factors distinguish between those youth who were charged with some type of homicide and those youth who were not charged with any type of homicide. We find that only 18 (1.33%) youth were charged with a homicide offense. Among the predictors, age, intelligence quotient (IQ), exposure to violence, perceptions of community disorder, and prevalence of gun carrying are significantly different across the two groups. Results from a rare-events logistic regression that simultaneously examined the relationship between these five risk factors and their ability to distinguish between the two groups indicate that only lower IQ and a greater exposure to violence were significant. Finally, a higher number of risk factors were associated with a higher likelihood that youth would be charged with homicide.
This study draws from role exit theory and feminist criminology to examine whether the catalysts and consequences of gang disengagement differ between males and females. We analyze data on 143 individuals interviewed about their status as former gang members in Los Angeles, CA, and Phoenix, AZ, and assess whether there are gender differences across three interrelated components of disengaging from gangs: (1) the motivations for leaving the gang, (2) sources of support in the exit process, and (3) real and perceived residual concerns and consequences in transitioning out of the gang. Very few differences in the gang disengagement process were found between females and males. Females reported continued concerns about threats to their family, while males reported continued police harassment after leaving the gang. Overall, findings suggest that group processes shape disengagement experiences regardless of gender.
The current study tested whether teacher-rated externalizing behavior and academic (reading) performance mediate the relationship between childhood onset conduct disorder and self-reported adolescent delinquency and officially recorded adult offending. All 411 boys from the Cambridge Study of Delinquent Development served as participants in this study. Mediation analysis revealed that the direct effect of childhood onset conduct disorder and the indirect effect of reading performance on mid-adolescent delinquency and early adult offending were nonsignificant, but that adolescent externalizing behavior had a significant indirect effect on both delinquency and adult offending.
The goals of this study were to test the measurement invariance of the Structured Assessment of Violence Risk in Youth (SAVRY) across sex and to assess whether the same items on the SAVRY influenced practitioners’ judgments about the risk for boys and girls separately. Using administrative data from 292 adjudicated juvenile offenders placed in state custody, we found that the internal structure of risk was invariant across sex. We also found both similarities and differences in the factors used to make judgments about risk across boys and girls. Our results provide support for the use of the SAVRY for boys and girls and supplement previous research examining the predictive validity of the SAVRY, the structured professional judgment framework for juvenile justice risk assessment, and the utility of the SAVRY across gender groups.
Research indicates that children of immigrants are less likely to engage in violence than children of native-born parents, even when they live in high-risk neighborhoods, suggesting that foreign-born parents employ strategies that buffer children from delinquency. Parental supervision is important for adolescent well-being, and some scholars suggest it is especially important for adolescents residing in disadvantaged communities. Others argue supervision is more critical for youth residing in advantaged contexts, where parental involvement is normative. To date, evidence on the interplay between supervision and neighborhood characteristics is mixed, suggesting a more complex relationship. This study considers whether immigrant status further conditions the interplay between supervision and neighborhood characteristics, using data from a sample of adolescents residing in Chicago neighborhoods. Findings indicate that less supervised, first-generation adolescents are more likely to perpetrate violence in low-risk neighborhoods, while less supervised, second- and third-generation adolescents are more likely to perpetrate violence in high-risk settings.
This mixed-methods study contributes to the emerging literature on immigration and law enforcement practices by measuring variation in attitudes toward the police across first- and second-generation immigrants in a survey sample of young individuals aged 18–25 stopped by the New York City Police Department (N = 508). We supplement results from these models with insights from interviews with other youth and their caregivers (N = 77). Findings show that foreign-born (first generation) youth generally exhibit more positive perceptions of police "effectiveness," while those born in the United States to at least one foreign-born parent (second generation) are more likely to report more negative perceptions of "legitimacy." The salience of immigration in these models, however, is weakened by the youths’ number of reported police stops as well as their perceived fairness and neutrality. Findings highlight the importance of considering police contact as a moderator of police attitudes as well as the need to unpack measures of police performance across subdomains.
We draw upon the case of Seacrest High School to show that the extensive, physical separation of U.S.-born and immigrant students, as well as targeted supports for immigrant students absent similar attention to the rest of the student body, undermine the conditions necessary for a safe school. Seacrest community members expressed conflicting and conflicted perceptions concerning the extent to which immigrant students should receive differential treatment and the extent to which they should be physically isolated. These perceptions, which evoked concerns about fairness and educational efficacy, put the school’s legitimacy into question and threatened its ability to ensure safety. Despite misgivings, the structure was insulated in part by a web of racial stereotypes about Asian immigrant and African American students. We conclude that educational practices for English language learners should be evaluated by their effects on school culture and particularly on school safety.
A growing body of research has identified a negative relationship between generational status and criminological outcomes such that foreign-born Latinos are significantly less likely to report offending, victimization, and drug use compared to their native-born counterparts. What has been explored to a lesser degree is the extent to which generational status impacts the experiences of Latino youth within the juvenile justice system. Using the Add Health data set, this article explores the prevalence of juvenile court involvement among foreign (i.e., first generation) and native-born (i.e., second generation or higher) Latino youth as well as the types of offenses for which they were adjudicated delinquent. Results suggest that significant differences exist between the foreign and native-born both in terms of juvenile court involvement and offense types. These findings are discussed relative to the extant literature and juvenile justice policy and practice.
Contrary to popular opinion, scholarly research has documented that immigrant communities are some of the safest places around. Studies repeatedly find that neighborhood immigrant concentration is either negatively associated with crime and delinquency or not related to crime and delinquency at all. Less well understood, however, is why this is the case. A critical limitation of existing research is the exclusion of measures that capture the intervening processes by which immigrant concentration influences crime and delinquency. The current study begins to address this gap in the literature. We use data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health to examine the relationship between neighborhood immigrant concentration and adolescent violence and to assess the extent to which social capital and personal and vicarious victimization may account for this relationship. Contrary to our expectations, social capital and personal and vicarious victimization do not mediate the relationship between neighborhood immigrant concentration and adolescent violence.
A growing literature shows that school context is an important predictor of student behavior, above and beyond individual and family characteristics. Limited attention, however, has been given to potential contingencies in this relationship. The aim of this research is to extend previous school-based studies by examining whether and to what extent school context is differentially predictive of violent delinquency for immigrant and nonimmigrant youth. Using two waves of data from two multicity program evaluations, Teens, Crime, and the Community/Community Works (T.C.C./C.W.) and the Gang Resistance Education and Training (G.R.E.A.T.) program, we assess the impact of four measures of school climate on violent delinquency. Results highlight important contingencies in the relationship between immigrant status and violence.
This study examines self-reported delinquency among immigrant youth to determine the effects of both legitimate and illegitimate opportunities on youth violence. Data from the study show that parental employment reduces, but youth’s intensive work during the school year and involvement in property crime increase, the risk of youth violence. Although findings from the study indicate the importance of parental employment in preventing immigrant youth’s violence, the study suggests that the relationship between employment and violence can change over the life course, and youth’s intensive work while attending school may not be beneficial for preventing youth violence. The effect of economic opportunities on the risk of youth violence is also implied in the relationship between negative neighborhood characteristics and youth violence and helps explain higher level of violence among Latino immigrant youths.
Research on student willingness to report peer weapon carrying points to the importance of school climate and contributions favorable to reporting. This study fills a gap by examining the etiology of willingness to report weapons on campus using predictors at the individual- and school levels. We utilize data from high school student self-reporting; results suggest that 34% of students reported having seen or having personal knowledge of a weapon in school in the prior 3 months. Students who report higher levels of school attachment, seeing or knowing of a weapon, have higher grades, and know about security measures were significantly more likely to report seeing weapons. Implications are discussed.
This article explores the progress that state governments across the country are making in implementing the three most widely used evidence-based programs (EBPs) for delinquent youth: multisystemic therapy (MST), functional family therapy (FFT), and multidimensional treatment foster care (MTFC). Rather than rank states, this study was designed to help state policy makers and practitioners identify strategies and techniques that can help expand the quality and availability of EBPs in their jurisdictions. Its explicit focus on implementation was purposeful. Most states are not yet in a position to begin to assess if their expenditures on these programs are having an impact (or at least an impact statewide) on juvenile recidivism, placements in residential facilities, or other key outcomes. We found that there are five states that are making substantially greater progress in implementing these EBPs: New Mexico, Louisiana, Maine, Connecticut, and Hawaii. In addition to the highest availability of these programs, ranging from 9.4 to 13.0 therapist teams per million population, these states share a number of key features that demonstrate that direct and purposeful state action is behind the expansion of these programs. Some of these features include structured involvement of all key stakeholders, effective leaders who championed not just the programs but a culture of using research to improve practice, pilot testing of new EBPs, special funding for designated EBPs, and technical assistance to counties to help get programs off the ground. Gaps in knowledge are identified and implications for policy are discussed.
Handgun and gang violence represent two important threats to public safety. Although several studies have examined the factors that increase the risk for gang membership and handgun carrying, few studies have explored the biosocial underpinnings to the development of both gang involvement and carrying a handgun. The current study addressed this gap in the literature by using kinship data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 to estimate the genetic and environmental effects on gang membership, handgun carrying, and the covariance between the two. Results revealed that genetic and nonshared environmental influences accounted for much of the association between gang membership and handgun carrying. Implications of these findings for future gang research are discussed.
Perceptions of school safety, fear of crime among students, and school avoidance have received increasing research attention in recent decades. Feeling unsafe at school impacts mental health, absenteeism, and academic success. We focus on a behavioral indicator of heightened concern about safety among high school students. Using 2011 National Youth Risk Behavior Survey data, we examine how crime victimization, bullying, drug use, weapon carrying, defensibility, media exposure, social integration, and school disorder affect school avoidance. Complementary log–log regression results indicate differences in predictors across sex, race/ethnicity, and class year. Implications for policy and future research on school avoidance are discussed.
This study examines the use of plea bargaining among a sample of waiver-eligible juveniles. Using focal concerns as our theoretical foundation, we examine whether concerns about public safety and blameworthiness help to shape plea bargain decision making. Data from a juvenile court in one South Carolina jurisdiction were analyzed using logistic regression (N = 241). This research finds that several factors influence the plea bargain decision including type of offense, number of victims, age, and race. Additionally, the analysis shows that there are several interactive effects between race, first-time offenders, and presence of an attorney. The theoretical and policy implications of these findings are discussed.
School safety is a critical issue for school staff, policy makers, and parents. Efforts to promote safety often focus on reducing school violence and disorder, including zero-tolerance disciplinary policies, metal detectors, and police officers in schools. Yet little is known about how safe students feel at school and how safety varies within schools. Using survey data for the population of middle school students in a large urban school district, this article identifies gaps in feelings of safety between Black students, Hispanic students, and their White and Asian peers. Key characteristics of schools and neighborhoods that relate to safety gaps are identified.
We examine the effect of perceived school fairness on one’s likelihood of participating in school violence and how social support influences this relationship. General strain theory (GST) and procedural justice theory suggest that when students perceive unfairness in school rules or treatment from teachers, they will be more likely to participate in violence. GST proposes that the strength of these relationships may be reduced by social support. Data from the 2009 School Crime Supplement of the National Crime Victimization Survey show that students who perceive unfair treatment from teachers are more likely to bring a weapon to school and fight at school than are students who believe that their teachers are fair. Students who perceive that rules are unfair are more likely to bring a weapon to school than are students who believe rules are fair. Perceived support from adults at school reduces the impact of teacher/rule unfairness on school violence.
Using data from the Rochester Youth Development Study, a series of regression models are estimated on offspring problem behavior with a focus on the interaction between parental history of delinquency and the parent–child relationship. Good parenting practices significantly interact with the particular shape of parental propensity of offending over time, functioning as protective factors to protect against problematic behaviors among those who are most at risk. The moderation effects vary slightly by the age of our subjects. Accordingly, it is important to distinguish the effect of not only the level of parental delinquency at one point in time but also the shape of the delinquency trajectory on outcomes for their children. Good parenting holds the hope of breaking the vicious cycle of intergenerational transmission of delinquency.
Measures of delinquent peers have been found to predict a wide variety of antisocial behaviors, but few studies have examined the role that biological factors may play in moderating the delinquent peers–delinquency relationship. Using a sample of adolescent males drawn from the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health (N = 3,557), we explore whether variants of the dopamine transporter gene (DAT1) interact with associations with substance-using peers to affect self-reported delinquency. Results of negative binomial regressions reveal that affiliations with delinquent peers interact with the 10R allele of DAT1 to influence offending, net of control variables for self-control, and respondent’s substance use. Most important, a statistically significant effect of affiliations with delinquent peers on delinquency is only evident for males who carry two 10R DAT1 alleles (vs. zero or one). Thus, DAT1 may be implicated in antisocial behavior by rendering some individuals more susceptible to the influences of delinquent peers. Implications for criminological theory are discussed.
Although much research has explored bullies and bullying victims, little has been done to explore the long-term effects on those who have been bullied. Separately, a growing body of evidence suggests that there is a victim–offender overlap, in which many victims are or become offenders themselves. Taken together, this suggests that bullying victims may themselves be at elevated risk of involvement in deviance or crime. The present study uses data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 to explore this issue, utilizing propensity score matching to control for the shared predictors of offending and victimization. Given that bullying experiences can vary dramatically by gender, gender-specific analyses are performed. Results indicate that controlling for the propensity to be bullied reduces, but does not eliminate, the effect on later criminality.
Recent dramatic increases in the number of youth arrested for nonserious behavior in schools have led some jurisdictions to search for solutions to the "school-to-prison pipeline." In this article, we evaluate the WISE arrest diversion program in Utica, New York. We use a mixed-methods evaluation design including: (1) a pre–post program comparison of school conduct by participants, (2) a pre–post program comparison of school-based arrests at Upstate High School, (3) a multivariate analysis that estimates the influence of the WISE program on school-based arrests while controlling for citywide juvenile arrests and the passage of time, and (4) interviews conducted with students, program staff, and stakeholders. Although the program appeared more successful in reducing Upstate High School’s reliance on arrest than in improving school conduct among participants, results suggest that the WISE arrest diversion program contains promising elements and lessons for narrowing the school-to-prison pipeline.
This study was designed to examine whether the shift in juvenile justice policy toward punitive sanctioning disproportionately impacted racial and ethnic minority boys. Using a nationally representative sample derived from the National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth 1979 and 1997 (NLSY79, NLSY97), this study examines 1980–2000 differences in contact with the justice system, controlling for self-reported delinquency. Results confirmed that boys in 2000 were significantly more likely than those in 1980 to report being charged with a crime. Once charged, they were less likely to be diverted and more likely to be convicted and placed in a correctional institution. Consideration of interaction effects revealed these effects were magnified for Black and Hispanic males. These findings provide evidence of a general trend toward more punitive treatment of boys in the juvenile justice system, especially racial and ethnic minority boys.
Gangs are present in about 34% of all jurisdictions in the United States. Given elevations in violence and victimization associated with gang involvement, effective means are needed for measuring involvement among individual youth. This is especially the case among youth receiving services for problem behavior who might benefit from targeted treatments helping them reduce involvement in gangs. We assessed gang involvement among 421 youth referred by the justice system for intensive home- and community-based mental health treatment. Using self-report survey and therapist-recorded data, we identified 94 (22%) youth as gang involved. Risk factor measures provided support for our classification, driven primarily by self-reported indicators of gang involvement as opposed to therapist-recorded indicators.
Variants in the profile of youth with callous–emotional traits have been observed in juvenile and adult populations, and the presence of such traits has been repeatedly linked with violence. Although data on this issue are often culled from institutionalized populations, little is known about the heterogeneous nature of these psychopathic features in the population of youth at large. This research evaluates these variants in a national sample of youth while examining the intersection of violence–crime between those resembling the two subsets of primary and secondary psychopathy. Distinctions based on variant type and promise for more targeted intervention are also discussed.
This study explored 140 female youth parolees’ characterization of their relationships with their parole officers (PO), examined whether the quality of PO–youth relationships relate to recidivism, and explored the role of parental assistance in acquiring services during reintegration as a moderator of the link between PO–youth relationship and recidivism. Female youth perceived both an interpersonal and professionalism aspect of PO–youth relationship. The association between the interpersonal quality of PO–youth relationship and violent recidivism was strong and significant for those who had low parental assistance, but nonsignificant for those with high parental assistance. Implications for research, policy, and practice are discussed.
Recent findings indicate that including White offenders in the sample biases the predictability of risk and needs assessment instruments. As a result, this study examines the predictability of the Los Angeles County Needs Assessment Instrument (LAC) on a sample of African American and Hispanic juvenile probationers. Given that the extant literature focuses on regression analysis, to the curtailment of error analysis, this study also provides a unique examination of predictive error. The results suggest that the instrument under examination predicts better for Hispanics than African Americans. Of the two minority groups, the needs assessment instrument demonstrated the greatest effect size for Hispanic probationers. The LAC performed 16% better than chance predictions when classifying Hispanic juveniles. The area under the curve value was nonsignificant for African American juvenile probationers. The situating of our research findings, their limitations, suggestions for future research, and policy implications are discussed.
The present study uses longitudinal data from the Pathways to Desistance project to investigate the extent to which trajectories of violent youth offending are affected by exposure to community violence. Latent class growth analysis was used to identify groups that followed distinctive patterns of self-reported violent offending and exposure to violence over time. Multinominal regression was used to identify factors that distinguished membership in the trajectory subgroups. The results indicate that youth who had more chronic and direct exposure to community violence were more likely to remain mired in violent criminal behavior, independent of other known risk factors.
Although prior research has found evidence of the relationship between acculturation and offending, a detailed examination as to whether acculturation extends to victimization is lacking. Thus, the purpose of this study was to determine whether acculturation emerges as a factor relevant for violent victimization. Furthermore, this study sought to test the effects of sociological influences such as familial attachment to ascertain whether these effects account for the differences in violent victimization among foreign- and native-born Hispanics, while accounting for violent offending. Using data from a large nationally representative sample of Hispanic youth, the results indicated that there was a significant difference in violent victimization between foreign-born and native-born Hispanic youth. Also, despite the effect of familial attachment on violent victimization, elements of social learning (i.e., delinquent peers) and involvement in violent offending appear to better explain the violent victimization experiences among Hispanic youth.
The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of juvenile status on sentencing in the adult criminal justice system. This study includes four years (2000, 2002, 2004, and 2006) of national level data from the State Court Processing Statistics. The sample is comprised of over 35,000 offenders who were convicted in criminal court. In using multilevel modeling, the results indicate that juveniles are punished both equally and more harshly than adults, depending on the age of the adults and the specific sentencing outcome. The findings are partially consistent with existing research that suggests a juvenile penalty at the sentencing stage of criminal court proceedings.
Moral engagement produces strong emotions that help individuals refrain from serious criminal behavior, but what if a youth is unable to experience these emotions. Based on a sample of adjudicated delinquents and using a series of structural equation models, we test whether moral disengagement varies by level of psychopathy in relation to criminal onset and assess this stability across gender. Psychopathic personality features, moral disengagement, and family stress intermixed in diverse ways depending on the severity of psychopathic personality and gender. At higher levels of psychopathy, the effect of psychopathy on criminal onset was unmediated. However, moral disengagement was found to have mediating effects on criminal onset at lower levels of psychopathy. Study findings lend support to the hypothesis that due to core emotional deficits, youth high on psychopathy are unaffected by the mechanisms of moral disengagement. Results are discussed in light of theories of morality and psychopathy and the treatment of moral deficits among youthful offenders.
Research on bullying suggests that traditional bullying is gendered such that males participate in physical acts while females engage in relational attacks, but the nature of the relationship between gender and cyberbullying is less defined. Because the Internet is an ideal environment for the relational forms of bullying favored by females, we hypothesize that females engage in more cyberbullying than males. We also hypothesize that there are gender differences in predictors of cyberbullying and cybervictimization. In order to better understand these gender dynamics, we examine self-reported bullying and victimization experiences in a sample of 3,867 middle school students in a northeastern state. Contrary to recent findings, our results show support for the gendered nature of cyberbullying and suggest that females engage in more cyberbullying than males. We also find gender variation in predictors of cybervictimization. We discuss the implication of these findings, especially in light of prevention and intervention needs.
As violence and crime within and around U.S. schools has drawn increased attention to school security, police, surveillance cameras, and other measures have grown commonplace at public schools. Social scientists commonly voice concern that exclusionary security measures are most common in schools attended by poor and non-White students, yet there is little empirical basis for assessing the extent of differential exposure, as we lack research on how exclusionary measures are distributed relative to school and student characteristics. To address this gap in the research, we use nationally representative school-level data from the School Survey on Crime and Safety to consider the security measures employed in elementary, middle, and high schools. Results indicate that while security measures are ubiquitous in U.S. high schools, those considered more exclusionary are concentrated in elementary, middle, and high schools attended by non-White and/or poorer students.
Pulling from in-depth interviews with school administrators, counselors, security and police officers, and teachers directly involved in thwarting rampage attacks at 11 Northeastern schools, this study considers the extent to which students have broken through a "code of silence," discouraging them from informing on their peers. While findings support prior research indicating the vital preventative role of students’ coming forward with information about threats, close scrutiny of averted incidents reveals that scholars and educational practitioners have overestimated the extent to which the student code of silence has diminished post-Columbine. Even in these successfully averted incidents, numerous students exposed to threats still did not come forward; those who did were rarely close associates or confidants of accused students; and some who did ultimately come forward did so as a result of being personally threatened or in order to deflect blame away from themselves, rather than out of altruistic concern for others.
This study examines whether gendered pathways to delinquency posited by general strain theory (GST) operate equivalently for contemporary Korean youth as compared to past studies focused on American youth. The study analyzed longitudinal data from 3,125 South Korean teenagers and revealed some support for GST. The findings suggest that gender equalization transition affected reports of alcohol use but not for aggressive behaviors. The findings also indicate that GST is gender-specific for Korean youth and depends on the type of delinquency, strains, negative emotionality, and conditioning factors. Unlike males, female strains tend to be more psychological and subtle, leading toward deviance through mediation effects of anger and various conditioning factors such as peer delinquency and gender role socialization. The findings also support GST as being applicable to Korean social and cultural contexts, thereby strengthening the theory’s generalizability. However, gendered pathways to delinquency in the GST framework may be conditioned by the contemporary Korean cultural context of asymmetric gender equalization transition.
The current research seeks to illuminate whether parenting is the predominant source of the development of self-control, or whether teachers contribute to the development of self-control among Korean youths. The findings indicate that Korean adolescents whose parents monitor and/or teachers discipline them when they engage in deviant behaviors are more likely to report higher levels of self-control. Also, the results indicate that youths with low self-control are more likely to engage in delinquency. These findings provide partial support for the generality and applicability of the theory in explaining deviance among Korean youths. Taking a broad perspective, our findings, however, may raise a serious theoretical question about Gottfredson and Hirschi’s assertion that parental socialization is the only primary source of the development of self-control.
Concerns regarding older gang members have persisted for nearly a century, and yet, these members have received minimal attention from gang scholars. Drawing conceptually from Thornberry, Krohn, Lizotte, Smith, and Tobin’s enhancement model and recent research on gang embeddedness, this study uses data from active gang members (N = 99) to qualitatively compare juvenile and adult gang members’ gang-related attitudes and behaviors. This research finds considerable overlap in the responses of juvenile and adult gang members. Both groups defined the gang in social terms and expressed a willingness to violently defend gang turf. Adult members, however, reported greater ownership of multiple firearms, supporting Spergel’s contention that lethal violence is more common among adult members due to greater availability of "sophisticated" weapons. The theoretical and policy implications of these findings are discussed.
This study attempts to develop further insight into the initiation and continuance of antisocial behavior during adolescence using a "launch" perspective in conjunction with several risk/protective factor measures from prior research on substance use and delinquency. Data from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN) were analyzed using multilevel latent growth curve models across three waves for three age cohorts (n = 2,130 youth; 78 neighborhoods). After considering typical trends and their variation, the relationships between covariates and different characteristics of the growth curves were analyzed. Implications of the findings for understanding developmental trends and prevention strategy are considered.
The intersectionality perspective suggests that the treatment of females and minority youth may be based on one’s social location in terms of oppression and privilege. Applying this perspective to juvenile court outcomes and based on prior research, the current study attempts to understand the individual and joint effects of gender and race on the treatment of status offenders at two decision-making stages of the juvenile justice system. Results from juvenile court referrals in two mid-Atlantic states indicate that gender and race, both individually and in combination, impact case outcomes in terms of both severity and leniency. While results are not always in the anticipated direction, the findings reveal that gender and race still matter in the decision to receive a court referral at intake and whether to adjudicate status offenders.
Over the past two decades, school resource officers (SROs) have become an increasingly common fixture on the American educational landscape. Despite their prominence in schools, significant investigation into their arrest-making behavior has not occurred. This article uses responses to a statewide survey of SROs in Delaware to explore SRO arrest decision making. Guided by Black’s general theory of arrest, it analyzes the effect of the school context on SROs’ arrest decisions. The SROs’ survey responses indicate that the factors highlighted by Black as influential to arrest decisions remain prominent in SRO arrest decision making, but the school context influences their arrest decisions in a variety of critical ways.
Gang and non-gang youth are often considered distinct for the purposes of prevention and intervention; yet, research shows there are areas of overlap in their risk profiles. This study examines areas of overlap and differences using a statewide representative sample of high school youth from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey. Gang membership is treated as a predictor variable rather than as an outcome. Results from a latent class analysis show that gang members do not form their own group in the school setting. These findings are discussed in relation to prevention and intervention strategies in the school realm and beyond.
The relevance of examining juveniles’ attitudes toward the police has been firmly established in the literature. Employing group-based trajectory modeling, the present study builds upon this previous research by estimating police attitudinal trajectories among a general sample of youths. The models produced a 5-group solution for both males and females, with four of the trajectories remaining relatively stable over the time observed and one noticeably experiencing a downward trend. Furthermore, of the items making up the police attitudinal scale, for several of the groups, the item measuring prejudice most consistently oscillated away from the trajectory profile. Policy implications are discussed.
Girls’ maladaptive responses to strain may be more likely to manifest in self-directed deviance than externally directed deviance, partly due to the role of depression/anxiety in girls’ lives. These assertions are tested using the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods. Gendered maladaptive outcomes—aggressive delinquency, running away, substance use, and suicidal behavior—are regressed on negative emotions and serious strain. The moderating effects of depression/anxiety are also tested. Depression/anxiety is associated with less aggressive delinquency for girls and amplifies the effects of strain and anger on nonaggressive maladaptive outcomes. The results help explain how gender influences relationships among strain, externalizing and internalizing negative emotions, and risk behaviors.
Despite research demonstrating that approximately 5% of study populations are composed of severely antisocial persons who account for a disproportionate share of problem behaviors, there have been no nationally representative studies assessing this phenomenon among adolescents. Using a large nationally representative sample (N = 18,614), we identified a severe group (4.7% of respondents) characterized by involvement in varied and intensive externalizing behaviors, greater internalizing, lower academic achievement, and less parental involvement. The current study is the first nationally representative study of criminal careers/externalizing behaviors among adolescents in the United States, which is convergent with prior research and theory.
Schools have generally been viewed as "safe havens" from victimization experiences. Yet, there is no question that youth experience a variety of victimization while attending school. The current study expands research on victimization at school by focusing on mobile youth. School mobility is of concern to both educators and practitioners and is associated with a number of harmful as well as beneficial outcomes (e.g., dropout and school failure, deviant behaviors, or increased test scores and grades). This research uses longitudinal data from a sample of approximately 2,000 youth to examine (1) the effect of in-school victimization on school mobility and (2) the consequences of school mobility on subsequent victimization. Findings from multilevel regression and change score analyses indicate that, in middle school, youth who are victimized are more likely to change schools and experience less victimization at the new school.
Institutional anomie theory (IAT) argues that crime results from a value complex that elevates the economy over other institutions. Though most assessments of IAT have been conducted at the macro level, the key relationships can also be evaluated among individuals. Using a national survey of high school seniors, we examine whether violence, theft, and substance use are related to individual commitments to economic and noneconomic institutions. Results show that adherence to economic values is positively related to certain forms of delinquency and that commitments to noneconomic institutions reduce delinquent behavior. Moreover, commitment to noneconomic institutions often reduces the effect of economic commitment on delinquency.
This study evaluated the Ottawa Community Youth Diversion Program (OCYDP), a diversion program targeting medium-risk youth and structured according to the risk, need, responsivity principles of offender rehabilitation. The recidivism rate of 170 postcharge youth referred to the OCYDP were compared to that of 208 matched youth sentenced to a period of probation. Youth referred to diversion had significantly lower reoffense rates than those referred to probation even when controlling for risk level, age, gender, and nature of the index offense. However, program completion within the diversion program impacted outcomes, with those failing to complete the program showing higher recidivism levels than the probation youth. Results are discussed in terms of the impact of judicial system involvement and the provision of treatment.
Research regarding disproportionate minority contact (DMC) and the juvenile justice system has concentrated on the extent to which DMC exists instead of why it exists. There remains a dearth of discussion on the theoretical underpinning of the overrepresentation of minorities in the juvenile justice system. The current research addresses this theoretical gap by examining the relationship between the racial threat hypothesis and Black–White disparity in out-of-home placements in the juvenile justice system. State-level panel data were used in the comparison of juvenile arrests to placement data. The study yielded mixed support for the racial threat hypothesis, finding percentage Black to be significantly related to racial disparity in placement rates but the ratio of Black to White employment not significant. The results showing that crime-prone, urban areas exhibit higher rates of Black–White placement disproportionality indicate that some portion of the disproportionality stems from broader social inequalities.
The Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI) aims to reduce the use of predispositional detention for juveniles. One core strategy of JDAI is the use of risk assessment instruments to ensure that detention decisions are made objectively. These instruments allow for mandatory and discretionary overrides based on statutory guidelines, aggravating factors, or mitigating factors. This study investigates the use of overrides in a jurisdiction that utilizes the JDAI model. Offense seriousness, prior record, history of escape/runaway, and age were consistent predictors of overrides. African Americans were less likely to receive mitigating overrides, and females were less likely to receive mandatory overrides.
Though ties between having psychopathic attributes and criminality are strong, only recently has the criminological community appreciated that the characteristic traits of psychopathy are emergent in youth and are variably distributed in the population. In recognition, this study evaluates the value of psychopathic callous–unemotional (CU) traits in youth alongside key criminological variables in explaining violence. Results show that CU traits remain robust among traditional criminological variables in explaining juvenile violence. Further, CU traits are observed to interact with key criminological covariates such that at higher levels of one construct, the impact of other correlates on violence is weakened.