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Reconsidering the Relationship between Race and Crime: Positive and Negative Predictors of Crime among African American Youth
Bradley R. Entner Wright*
and
C. Wesley Younts
University of Connecticut
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: bradley.wright{at}uconn.edu.
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Abstract |
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Studies of race and crime have emphasized the effects of social disadvantage and discrimination on increasing crime among African Americans. The authors extend this literature by examining various beliefs and institutions that have developed within African American communities that, in contrast, decrease criminal behavior. A model of cross-canceling, indirect effects between race and crime was developed and tested with data from the National Youth Survey. The results demonstrate that some factors, such as single-parent families, lowered educational attainment, and crime-ridden neighborhoods, increase criminal behavior among African American respondents relative to Whites. However, other factors, such as increased religiosity, strong family ties, and lowered alcohol consumption, decrease crime. These findings highlight the complex effects of race on crime.
First published on May 26, 2009, doi:10.1177/0022427809335170
Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency 2009;46:327.
A more recent version of this article appeared on August 1, 2009

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