Social Control, Law, Crime, and Deviance Commons^™

Adult Delinquency And Victimization: A Test Of Differential Association Theory With New Data, Shah Alam

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

The theory of differential association applies not only to adolescent people but also to the adult population. A lot of studies tested this theory on delinquent behavior but tests on victimization are rare. Using West Virginia Social Survey 2020 data, this study finds that there is an association between having delinquent friends and learning of self-delinquency in the adult population. It also reports that self-victimization can be predicted with having delinquent friends. The highest probability of victimization is twice for people for having pain medication misuser friends than of people having marijuana user friends. But self-delinquent behaviors do not report …

Caregivers’ Expectations, Reflected Appraisals, And Arrests Among Adolescents Who Experienced Parental Incarceration, Cynthia J. Najdowski, Melissa Noel

Psychology Faculty Scholarship

This research sought to identify a potential process by which intergenerational crime occurs, focusing on the effect of parental incarceration on adolescents’ subsequent arrests. We drew from Matsueda’s work on reflected appraisals as an explanatory mechanism for this effect. Thus, the present research examined whether caregivers’ and adolescents’ expectations for adolescents’ future incarceration sequentially mediated the effect of parental incarceration on adolescents’ actual arrest outcomes. Propensity score matching was used to examine this effect in a sample of 1,735 15- to 16-year-olds using NLSY97 data. Parental incarceration was positively related to caregivers’ expectations of adolescents’ future arrest. Moreover, caregivers’ expectations …

Race/Ethnicity, Citizenship Status, And Crime Examined Through Trauma Experiences Among Young Adults In The United States, Chistopher A. Mallett, Miyuki F. Tedor, Linda M. Quinn

Criminology, Anthropology, & Sociology Faculty Publications

Race/ethnicity, citizenship status, and trauma, have significant impact on delinquency and crime outcomes; though the rea- sons for some expected and unexpected crime pathways are still unanswered. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (n = 7,103), this study found the follow- ing results: no difference in the likelihood of engagement in delinquency and crime between blacks and whites; cumulative trauma increased delinquency and crime rates for all racial and ethnic groups; racial and ethnic minority groups compared to whites reported a significantly higher level of child- hood trauma experiences; and native-born female immigrant groups (but not …

Routine Activities And Adolescent Deviance Across 28 Cultures, Alexander T. Vazsonyi, Magda Javakhishvili, Albert J. Ksinan

Family Sciences Faculty Publications

Purpose
The current study tested the links between routine activities and deviance across twenty-eight countries, thus, the potential generalizability of the routine activities framework.

Methods
Data were collected as part of the Second International Self-Report Delinquency Study (ISRD-2) from 28 cultures, from seventh, eighth, and ninth grade adolescents (N = 66,859). Routine activities were operationalized as family, peer, solitary, and community activities. Country-level predictors included unemployment rate, prison population, life expectancy, and educational attainment.

Results
Three-level, hierarchical linear modeling (individual, school, and country) was used to test both individual and country-level effects on deviance. Findings supported predictions by the …

On The Development Of Self-Control And Deviance From Preschool To Middle Adolescence, Alexander T. Vazsonyi, Gabriela Ksinan Jiskrova

Family Sciences Faculty Publications

Purpose
The study tested whether developmental changes in self-control stabilize by late childhood (age 10) or continue into early and middle adolescence. Second, it tested the bidirectional, longitudinal relationship between self-control and deviance over an 11-year period.

Methods
Children (N = 1159) from the longitudinal NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (SECCYD) were assessed six times, ages 4.5 to 15 years. Latent growth models tested self-control and deviance trajectories, using competing growth functions to capture change over time. The longitudinal, bidirectional self-control-deviance links were examined in a cross-lagged latent model.

Results
Findings showed that children's self-control …

Practitioners' Views On Service Needs For Justice Involved Youth, Juan C. Llamas, Robin L. Chandler

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to assess practitioners’ views of service needs for juveniles involved with the justice system. In the United States, every year there are thousands of youth committed to detention institutions for delinquent acts. As a result, children as young as nine years of age up until adulthood have a difficult time integrating back into the community. In many instances, youth who have been involved with the justice system have a greater likelihood of recidivism due to their inability to adapt to their environment. Further, when youth enter the system, many times they are not receiving …

Testing Three Pathways To Substance Use And Delinquency Among Low-Income African American Adolescents, Dexter R. Voisin

Faculty Scholarship

Objective Mounting literature suggests that parental monitoring, risky peer norms, and future orientation correlate with illicit drug use and delinquency. However, few studies have investigated these constructs simultaneously in a single statistical model with low income African American youth. This study examined parental monitoring, peer norms and future orientation as primary pathways to drug use and delinquent behaviors in a large sample of African American urban adolescents. Methods A path model tested direct paths from peer norms, parental monitoring, and future orientation to drug use and delinquency outcomes after adjusting for potential confounders such as age, socioeconomic, and sexual orientation …

It's Time: A Meta-Analysis On The Self-Control-Deviance Link, Alexander T. Vazsonyi, Jakub Mikuška, Erin L. Kelley

Family Sciences Faculty Publications

Purpose
The current meta-analysis examines the link between self-control and measures of crime and deviance, taking stock of the empirical status of self-control theory and focusing on work published between 2000 and 2010.

Methods
A total of 796 studies were reviewed for inclusion/exclusion criteria and yielded a final study sample of 99 studies (88 cross-sectional and 19 longitudinal effect sizes, analyzed separately). Random effects mean correlations between self-control and deviance were analyzed for cross-sectional and longitudinal studies, respectively. Publication bias was assessed using multiple methods.

Results
A random effects mean correlation between self-control and deviance was M_r = 0.415 …

Does Use Of Neutralization Techniques Predict Delinquency And Substance Use Outcomes?, Erin C. Siebert

Clinical Psychology Dissertations

This study was part of a larger research intervention that uses motivational interviewing (MI) as part of an in-school substance abuse intervention in local high schools in the greater Seattle area. Our aim was to test hypothesized relationships between marijuana use, other delinquent behavior, and neutralization techniques used by participants and determine their impact on the effectiveness of an MI-based intervention. Hypotheses were that neutralization technique use would decrease the effectiveness of an MI intervention due to the conflicting cognitive processes of justification and developing discrepancy. Of the 84 participants that completed Intake assessments, 60% were male and identified as …

Involvement In The Juvenile Justice System For African American Adolescents: Examining Associations With Behavioral Health Problems, Dexter R. Voisin

Faculty Scholarship

While researchers have found that African American youth experience higher levels of juvenile justice involvement at every system level (arrest, sentencing, and incarceration) relative to their other ethnic counterparts, few studies have explored how juvenile justice involvement and number of contacts might be correlated with this broad range of problems. A convenience sample of 638 African American adolescents living in predominantly low-income, urban communities participated in a survey related to juvenile justice involvement. Major findings using logistic regression models indicated that adolescents who reported juvenile justice system involvement versus no involvement were 2.3 times as likely to report mental health …

Religion, Delinquency, And Drug Use: A Meta-Analysis, P. Elizabeth Kelly, Joshua R. Polanin, Sung Joon Jang, Byron R. Johnson

Articles

Contemporary research on adolescent involvement in religion and delinquency is generally traced to Hirschi and Stark’s 1969 study, titled ‘‘Hellfire and Delinquency.’’ Their study surprised many by reporting no significant relationship between religious involvement and delinquency. Subsequent replications provided mixed results, but multiple reviews, both traditional and systematic, found religious involvement to be inversely related to delinquency. However, meta-analysis of the relationship remains scant with only three studies published to date. To address this research need, we conducted a meta-analysis of 62 relevant studies over four decades, which provided 145 effect sizes from 193,656 adolescents. We examined six bivariate correlations …

Delinquency And Crime Prevention: Overview Of Research Comparing Treatment Foster Care And Group Care, Gershon K. Osei, Kevin M. Gorey, Debra M. Hernandez Jozefowicz

Social Work Publications

Background: Evidence of treatment foster care (TFC) and group care’s (GC) potential to prevent delinquency and crime has been developing.

Objectives: We clarified the state of comparative knowledge with a historical overview. Then we explored the hypothesis that smaller, probably better resourced group homes with smaller staff/resident ratios have greater impacts than larger homes with a meta-analytic update.

Methods: Research literatures were searched to 2015. Five systematic reviews were selected that included seven independent studies that compared delinquency or crime outcomes among youths ages 10–18. A similar search augmented by author and bibliographic searches identified six additional studies with an …

The Impact Of Detention On Juvenile Recidivism In Montana: Is The Impact Of Detention Influenced By Other Factors?, Daniel N. Acton

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The purpose of this study is to identify the effect detention has on recidivism risk as well as to identify the degree to which the effect of detention on recidivism is influenced by other variables. The data for this analysis were collected by probation officers across Montana, using the Back on Track risk assessment instrument (N=840). Although detention was the topic of interest, this analysis also tested aspects of three popular criminological theories: social bond theory, self-control theory, and life-course persistent theory. Using logistic regression, the effects of detention and a variety of other risk factors are identified. Hypothesis one …

Routine Activities As Determinants Of Gender Differences In Delinquency, Katherine B. Novak, Lizabeth A. Crawford

Katherine B. Novak

This study examined the extent to which gender differences in delinquency can be explained by gender differences in participation in, or response to, various routine activity patterns (RAPs) using data from the second and third waves of the National Education Longitudinal Survey of 1988. While differential participation in routine activities by gender failed to explain males’ high levels of deviance relative to females, two early RAPs moderated the effect of gender on subsequent deviant behavior. Participation in religious and community activities during the sophomore year in high school decreased, while unstructured and unsupervised peer interaction increased, levels of delinquency two …

Life In The Penit: Framing And Performing Miami's Graffiti Subculture, Victor M. Merida

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the tradition of the Birmingham School of cultural studies, this thesis focuses on Miami’s graffiti subculture and the conflicts between market economies and economies of social meaning. As a reference point, I consider Miami’s “Penits”: the name given to the seemingly abandoned buildings where graffiti is performed. Short for penitentiary, the term derives from the 1980s after a large building rumored to be a prison was defunded midway through its construction. After this first reclamation, every other graffiti heterotopia in Miami has been similarly recoded as spaces that mock structures of discipline and industry.

Through Michel Foucault’s biopolitical framework …

Troubled Youth: Girls In Gangs, Mark Manny Valentin

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Girls in gangs have been around since society recognized that there was a gang issue and although there has been an increase in attention paid to gangs in the last few decades, there has been relatively little attention paid to the girls in these gangs. It has only been recently that research has been conducted to explore the reasons behind girls joining gangs and their roles in the gang setting. Generally though, the research on girls in gangs has either been middle school surveys or qualitative studies of girls already in gangs. This research pulled from a population of delinquent …

Efficacy Of The Jesness Inventory-Revised Conduct Disorder And Oppositional Defiant Disorder Scales, Terry B. Pinsoneault, Frank R. Ezzo

Contemporary Issues in Juvenile Justice

The authors investigated the Conduct Disorder (JR-CD) and Oppositional Defiant Disorder (JR-ODD) scales developed for the Jesness Inventory-Revised. Participants included 340 youth aged 12 to 18 seen at a juvenile court diagnostic clinic in Cleveland, Ohio. The authors also investigated the previously existing Social Maladjustment (JR-SM) and Asocial Index (JR-ASO) scales. Participants were independently diagnosed as having CD, ODD, Disruptive Behavior Disorder NOS (a milder behavioral disorder), or no diagnosable behavioral disorder. Mean scores varied across the groups in the expected directions for all four scales. JR-CD and JR-ODD were better able to differentiate between their target groups and the …

Family Structure As A Social Context For Family Conflict: Unjust Strain And Serious Delinquency, Ryan E. Spohn, Don L. Kurtz

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

Two major themes in the delinquency literature are the roles of family structure and childhood victimization. Combining these two lines of research, the current project examines the unique contribution of family structure and victimization on the serious delinquency of a nationally representative sample of adolescents. In addition, we examine whether the form of families serves to condition the relationship between victimization and delinquency. Past research indicates that abuse is more likely to occur in two-parent families of a ‘‘mixed’’ form, specifically in the presence of a live-in boyfriend or stepfather. However, little is known regarding the impact of victimization on …

An Analysis Of Monitoring The Future: A Look At The Relationship Between Juvenile Delinquency And Involvement In School., Thomas Theodore Zawisza

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between juvenile delinquency and involvement with various school activities. In order to do so data from the Monitoring the Future survey of high school seniors in 2008 were used. Univariate measures included descriptive statistics of the variables, while bivariate analysis determined if a relationship exists between the dependent and independent variables. Results of the analysis suggested mixed support for the relationship between adolescent delinquency and involvement in school activities.

Routine Activities As Determinants Of Gender Differences In Delinquency, Katherine B. Novak, Lizabeth A. Crawford

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

This study examined the extent to which gender differences in delinquency can be explained by gender differences in participation in, or response to, various routine activity patterns (RAPs) using data from the second and third waves of the National Education Longitudinal Survey of 1988. While differential participation in routine activities by gender failed to explain males’ high levels of deviance relative to females, two early RAPs moderated the effect of gender on subsequent deviant behavior. Participation in religious and community activities during the sophomore year in high school decreased, while unstructured and unsupervised peer interaction increased, levels of delinquency two …

An Integrated Approach To The Role Of Control In Child Maltreatment And Delinquency, Heather Page Kinnett

Online Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis is to integrate the labeling perspective and social support perspective into the central causal process of Charles Tittle's control balance theory. This will explain the linkages between child maltreatment and delinquency. The child maltreatment experience and the consequent label of victim affect a youth's self concept which in turn affects how a provoking event will be interpreted. The child maltreatment experience lessens the amount of control imbalance necessary for a provoking event to be interpreted as humiliating. The victim label also affects motivation for deviance indirectly through its effects on the control ratio and opportunity …

A Social Control Based Analysis Of The Effect Of Community Context Upon Self Reported Delinquency Rates., Jacqueline Marie Parlier

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Social disorganization and social control are two seemingly competing theories attempting to explain crime and delinquency. In this study, social control and social disorganization are measured in a sample of college students via self-report surveys using questions derived from Hirschi's social control questionnaire and a previously employed social disorganization measure. Factor and reliability analyses were examined to validate each of these key constructs. Zero-order correlations, regression analyses, and path analysis were then used to test the key propositions of these theories. These tests provide full and qualified support for these theories. Implications for future research and criminal justice policy are …

Review Of Juvenile Delinquency: Causes And Control (2nd Edition) By Robert Agnew, Ryan E. Spohn

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

Juvenile Delinquency: Causes and Control is a comprehensive text addressing the causes of, and responses to, a major social problem in modern American society. Although Robert Agnew is best known for his development of General Strain Theory, an individuallevel strain theory rooted in classical anomie theory and the more recent literature on stress, his broader record of publication denotes him as one of the premier theoretical analysts in the fields of criminology and juvenile delinquency. This text reflects his command of the discipline. The book is oriented according to a number of themes. First, it is designed to be shorter …

Examining Juvenile Crime And Recidivism, Charles M. Watson

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

High juvenile recidivism rates are a dilemma that is plaguing the juvenile justice system and the treatment facilities that operate within. There is little understanding of the causal relationship between recidivism rates, treatment types, and the demographics of the residents at the various treatment facilities. The purpose of this research is to identify the common flaws existing in current treatment practices and to utilize social labeling theory as a means of gaining a better understanding of this issue.

Gun Related Youth Violence: Fear Of Victimization Versus The Influence Of Significant Others, Ryan E. Spohn, Samantha Lane

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

Differential association/social learning theories have received considerable empirical support as an explanation of participation in delinquent acts, including violent delinquency (Heimer 1997). More recently, and primarily as a result of highly publicized school shootings in suburban high schools, fear of crime and victimization have received attention as motivators of gun-carrying and gun violence. These phenomena are generally not examined in unison, however, leaving open the question of their relative role as a cause of gun carrying and violence amongst youth. The current research project addresses this question. A major strength of the current research is the adoption of multiple measures …

Delinquency And Gun Violence: The Intervening Role Of Values Toward Guns, Ryan E. Spohn

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

The current research project examines the intervening role of values towards gun possession and gun use in predicting involvement of high school-aged males in general delinquency and gun-related delinquency. As the first step of the project, we examine the factors that influence the values that the youth have towards gun possession and gun use. The most important factors producing positive values towards guns are a need for protection, having friends who carry guns, being a gang member, and being a victim of a gun crime. In contrast, frequency of church attendance reduces such values. As the next step, we examined …