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Reconsidering the Relationship between Race and Crime

Positive and Negative Predictors of Crime among African American Youth

University of Connecticut, bradley.wright{at}uconn.edu

C. Wesley Younts

University of Connecticut

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.

Key Words: crime • race • adolescence

This version was published on August 1, 2009

Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, Vol. 46, No. 3, 327-352 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0022427809335170


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