Criminology and Criminal Justice Commons^™

Ethnic Variations In Levels Of Conventional Bonding Among Different Black Adolescents In The United States: Implications For Behavioral Resilience, Shantol Mcintosh, Sherri Simmons-Horton, Frank Barnes

Contemporary Issues in Juvenile Justice

The quantitative study offers a description of how Caribbean-descended and African American adolescents in a national sample compare on strands of Hirschi’s conventional bond in terms of deviance and justice system involvement. Using a sample of 1,141 adolescents from the National Survey of American Life-Adolescent data, these groups were compared with tests of significance. The results indicate that belief and attachment are the most significant predictors of justice system contact. While Caribbean youth reported more deviance, this was not predictive of more justice system involvement than African Americans. Explanations for these findings and practice implications are offered.