Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency recent issues

Examining Personal Security and Avoidance Measures in a 12-City Sample

Giblin, M. J. — 2008-10-06

Existing research has recognized the multidimensional nature of self-protective behaviors. Using secondary data collected by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, this study examined the predictive ability of measures related to policing, lifestyles, victimization, neighborhood conditions, and demographic characteristics in explaining six types of protective behavior. Results suggest that factors such as awareness of community policing, satisfaction with police, perceptions of disorder, and sex are consistently related to protective measures, whereas the influence of other factors (e.g., personal victimization, race) varies according to the behavior analyzed.

Bullying and Special Education as Predictors of Serious Delinquency

White, N. A., Loeber, R. — 2008-10-06

Bullying can create a climate of fear and discomfort in schools and communities. This study examined the longitudinal associations between children's bullying, special education placements in elementary school, and serious delinquent behavior during secondary school. Using data from the youngest sample of the Pittsburgh Youth Study, the authors examined these associations while controlling for prior poor academic achievement and aggression. They found that contrary to prior research, neither special education placements nor poor academic achievement predicted bullying or serious delinquency. They found substantial continuity between early aggression and special education placements, bullying, and serious delinquency. They discuss the implications of our finding for future research and policy development.

Police-Community Relations in a Majority-Black City

Weitzer, R., Tuch, S. A., Skogan, W. G. — 2008-10-06

Minority racial and ethnic groups often view themselves as targets of abusive treatment at the hands of the police. Although racial variation in public assessments of the police in the United States has been amply documented in past research, less research has explored the sources of these differences at the intersection of demographic, interactional, and ecological levels. This article examines the role of each factor in shaping citizens' perceptions of police misconduct, racial differences in these perceptions, and the reasons underlying them. The locus of the study is also important. Most research on police–community relations has been conducted in cities whose populations and police departments are majority White in composition, despite the growing number of minority-White cities. The present study draws on data from residents of a majority-Black city with a majority-Black police department: Washington, DC. The findings contribute to our understanding of policing in such underresearched cities.

A Multilevel Analysis of the Relationships among Communal School Organization, Student Bonding, and Delinquency

Payne, A. A. — 2008-10-06

Research has identified school-related factors that are predictive of a student's involvement in delinquency: specifically, school-level communal school organization and individual-level student bonding. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to examine the multilevel relationships among these concepts in a nationally representative sample of 13,597 students in 253 schools. Hypotheses stating that students who attend more communally organized schools are more likely to be bonded to school and less likely to engage in delinquency were upheld, as was the hypothesis that students who are more attached to their school are less likely to engage in delinquency. The final hypothesis, which examined a multilevel interaction between communal school organization and student bonding, was upheld in that student bonding had less of an effect on delinquency in schools that were more communally organized. Implications for delinquency prevention are discussed.

A Comparison of Victim, Offender, and Event Characteristics of Alcohol- and Non-Alcohol- Related Homicides

Pridemore, W. A., Eckhardt, K. — 2008-07-28

The authors used narrative data from court and police records of homicides in Russia to compare alcohol- and non-alcohol-related incidents on victim, offender, and event characteristics. Binary logistic regression models were estimated for neither participant drinking, offender drinking, victim drinking, and both drinking. Consistent differences were found between alcohol- and non-alcohol-related homicides across the models. Alcohol-related homicides were significantly more likely to occur overnight, to occur on weekends, and to result from acute arguments and significantly less likely to occur between strangers, to be profit motivated or premeditated, and to be carried out to hide other crimes. No significant differences between the drinking and nondrinking samples were found for victim's gender, primary weapon used, or event location. The authors place these findings into the literature on the situational context of crime and create a tentative typology of homicide events, grounded in the results of their inductive approach, based on alcohol use by homicide offenders and victims.

Mortality Rates and Causes of Death of Convicted Dutch Criminals 25 Years Later

Nieuwbeerta, P., Piquero, A. R. — 2008-07-28

Extant theory hypothesizes that offenders have greater risk of premature and unnatural death than nonoffenders, but few studies have assessed this hypothesis; those doing so have relied on U.S. samples of male offenders typically followed until midlife. This article examines the relation between criminal conduct and mortality rates in the Netherlands using data from the Criminal Careers and Life Course Study, which traces the life course and criminal careers of 4,615 males and females convicted in 1977 up until 2002. The causes of deaths that occurred during this 25-year period are examined using data from the Netherlands Statistics. Results show that criminal conduct increases the chance of premature death due to natural and unnatural causes. Convicted persons run greater risks of dying of unnatural causes such as accidents, homicide, and suicide. Additionally, risk of premature, unnatural death varies, with high-rate, persistent offenders evincing higher risks than other types of offenders.

Inmate Social Ties and the Transition to Society: Does Visitation Reduce Recidivism?

Bales, W. D., Mears, D. P. — 2008-07-28

Despite increased scholarly and policy attention to prisoner reentry, much remains unknown about the factors that contribute to a successful transition from prison to society. The authors focused on a neglected but potentially critical factor, inmate visitation, that may reduce recidivism. The expectation of such an effect stems from prominent crime theories and an increasing body of work that stresses the importance of social ties to the reentry process. Using data from the Florida Department of Corrections, the authors tested hypotheses about the effects of visitation on recidivism. The measures of visitation included whether any visits occurred, the frequency and recency of visitation, and the type of visitor received (e.g., family member, friend). The authors also examined whether visitation effects varied by age, sex, race, type of instant offense, and prior incarceration. The findings indicate that visitation reduces and delays recidivism. Their implications for theory, research, and policy are discussed.

Racial Disparity in Formal Social Control: An Investigation of Alternative Explanations of Arrest Rate Inequality

Ousey, G. C., Lee, M. R. — 2008-07-28

Prior research on racial disparities in arrest rates has been limited by an almost exclusive focus on two explanatory models, an inattention to the mediating processes identified in leading theories, and a relative neglect of nonindex crimes, for which police discretion is greater. This analysis contributes to research on race differences in social control by more comprehensively evaluating mediating factors in the racial threat and benign neglect models and by testing explanatory frameworks that link racial disparities to opportunities for bias that result from residential segregation and variations in police discretionary authority across crime types. Analyses of data from 136 cities reveal two key findings. First, an uneven distribution of Blacks and Whites is associated with higher arrest disparities for drug and weapons arrests, but not with violent or property crime arrest disparities. Second, there is little evidence in support of the venerable racial threat or benign neglect explanatory frameworks.

Extending Deterrence Theory: Do Delinquent Peers Condition the Relationship between Perceptions of Getting Caught and Offending?

Matthews, S. K., Agnew, R. — 2008-04-07

Studies suggest that the perceived certainty of punishment has little or no effect on subsequent offending. Some researchers, however, argue that perceived certainty deters offending among some types of people but not among others. This article contributes to this line of argument by examining whether the effect of perceived certainty on offending is conditioned by the individual's social environment, specifically the individual's level of association with delinquent peers. Using longitudinal data from a sample of high school students, the authors find that perceived certainty only predicts offending among youth with no or some delinquent peers.

The Influence of Being under the Influence: Alcohol Effects on Adolescent Violence

Felson, R. B., Teasdale, B., Burchfield, K. B. — 2008-04-07

The authors examine the relationship between intoxication, chronic alcohol use, and violent behavior using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. The authors introduce a method for disentangling spuriousness from the causal effects of situational variables. Their results suggest that drinkers are much more likely to commit violence while sober than non-drinkers, suggesting that a considerable portion of the relationship between prevalence of drinking and violence is spurious. The authors find evidence of a causal effect of intoxication, however, when they examine the relationship between frequency of drinking and violence while sober or drinking. Intoxication has stronger effects on adolescents who are older, White, and who already have violent tendencies.

Clearing Murders: Is It about Time?

Regoeczi, W. C., Jarvis, J., Riedel, M. — 2008-04-07

This study uses data from the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) to explore the impact of model selection on determining the association of victim-level and incident-level factors to the likelihood of homicide clearance. We compare both traditional operationalizations of clearance rates as well as the time to clearance as dependent variables in examinations of correlates of solvability in homicide cases. Using a different approach than most other analyses of this problem, the results affirm the consistency of some effects but also reveal some important differences when the aspect of time is factored into the model. Implications for analyses of efficiency and effectiveness of police response to homicide, cold-case analyses, and other strategies for solving crime are discussed.

Public Support for Getting Tough on Corporate Crime: Racial and Political Divides

Unnever, J. D., Benson, M. L., Cullen, F. T. — 2008-04-07

The recent wave of corporate wrongdoing has raised the issue of whether the public is concerned about the control of lawlessness in the business world. Using a national probability sample, we explore whether Americans want to enact stricter regulations of the stock market and advocate more punitive criminal sanctions for corporate executives who conceal their company's true financial condition. The findings reveal that Americans generally favor getting tough on corporate illegality. The analysis also indicates, however, that group differences exist in public support for punitive corporate crime control policies. Although liberals and conservatives equally support punishing corporate criminals more harshly, African Americans are more likely than Whites to endorse more restrictive and more punitive policies toward corporate criminals. We conclude that punitive attitudes are socially constructed beliefs that reflect the dynamics of conflicted class and racial relations.

The "Cause" of Low Self-Control: The Influence of Maternal Self-Control

Nofziger, S. — 2008-04-07

Self-control theory is one of the most tested theories within the field of criminology. However, one of the basic assumptions of the theory has remained largely ignored. Gottfredson and Hirschi stated that the focus of their general theory of crime is the "connection between the self-control of the parent and the subsequent self-control of the child" (1990:100). However, no study to date has specifically tested this relationship. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, this study finds that mothers with low self-control do indeed produce children with lower self-control. To begin to understand the mechanism responsible for this relationship, several parenting practices used by the mothers are examined. The analysis shows that the self-control of the mother influences her choice of punishments, as well as having moderate impacts on how she supervises her children. In turn, higher supervision and several choices of punishments affect the development of self-control in the child. This study therefore provides support for a vital, yet previously unexamined, piece of the general theory of crime.

Criminal Mobility and Criminal Achievement

Morselli, C., Royer, M.-N. — 2008-01-04

This study examines the impact of criminal mobility on criminal earning patterns in a sample of incarcerated offenders who reported their criminal experiences over a three-year period. Criminal mobility is indicated by an individual's offending perimeter and not the traditional journey-to-crime measure. Findings reveal that the offending perimeter length is a factor of criminal achievement in that mobile offenders reported higher financial earnings from crime than immobile offenders. Greater distances traveled for crime were also generally associated with higher criminal earnings, but this was more salient for predatory offenders than market offenders.

Intimacy with Outlaws: The Role of Relational Distance in Recruiting, Paying, and Interviewing Underworld Research Participants

Jacques, S., Wright, R. — 2008-01-04

The past quarter century has witnessed the emergence of a substantial literature devoted to the mechanics of recruiting, paying, and interviewing currently active offenders. Absent from that literature, however, is a theoretical framework within which to understand, test, modify, and further develop efforts to locate such offenders and gain their cooperation. This note, based on the authors' research with active drug sellers in Atlanta and St. Louis, explores the ways in which relational distance, that is, the nature and degree of intimacy between recruiter, interviewee, and researcher, affects the behavior of active offender research. The note concludes with theoretically situated, practical advice for (1) recruiting active criminals, (2) cost containment, and (3) maximizing the quantity and validity of data produced in interviews.

Multilevel Impacts of Perceived Incivilities and Perceptions of Crime Risk on Fear of Crime: Isolating Endogenous Impacts

Wyant, B. R. — 2008-01-04

Past work has linked incivilities to fear of crime but has left open two questions: Do multilevel impacts of incivilities persist after simultaneously controlling for sociodemographics, perceptions of crime risk, neighborhood fabric, and violent crime? Is neighborhood fear spatially lagged, and if so, does controlling for nearby fear alter endogenous impacts on fear? Survey data from 45 Philadelphia neighborhoods showed that those perceiving more incivilities and more crime risk than their neighbors were more fearful. Furthermore, neighborhoods where residents on average saw more crime risk were on average more fearful, even after controlling for significantly auto-correlated nearby neighborhood fear. The results suggest that impacts of incivilities on fear at the individual level are not completely mediated by perceived risk and that average fear levels in nearby neighborhoods correlate significantly, suggesting that some localized processes are operating above the neighborhood level. What these are, and how they link to neighborhood- and individual-level dynamics, remains to be investigated.

Co-Offending and the Age-Crime Curve

Stolzenberg, L., D'Alessio, S. J. — 2008-01-04

It is proffered rather frequently that co-offending is the dominate form of criminal offending among juveniles because of the enhanced salience of peer pressure during adolescence, and that this enhanced propensity to co-offend is pivotal for understanding the age-crime curve. Using National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) data for 2002, the authors conduct an analysis of 466,311 criminal arrests drawn from seven states. Their findings indicate that co-offending patterns by age are not noteworthy in elucidating why participation in illegal activities rises in adolescence, peaks in early adulthood, and then declines thereafter. Once co-offending is differentiated from solo offending, with solo offending representing the bulk of criminal activity among all age groups, including juveniles, a curvilinear relationship remains between age and solo-offending and between age and co-offending. These nonlinear associations are not conditioned by an offender's sex, race, or by offense type. The authors also analyzed co-offending crimes reported to police. In many types of crimes, offenders and victims come into contact, thus allowing for the estimation of the perpetrator's age notwithstanding whether an arrest was made. The findings generated in this supplemental analysis are similar to those produced using the arrest data. The results of this study have consequential theoretical implications not only because they cast doubt on the assertion that differences in co-offending levels between juveniles and adults account for the age-crime curve, but they also contravene the widely held belief that most juvenile offenses are perpetrated in the company of others rather than by individuals acting alone. Based on the new data reported here it appears that group offending is merely incidental in circumstance and thus of little etiological significance.