Amy E. Nivette

Cross-National Predictors of Crime: A Meta-Analysis

Cross-national research has increased in the past few decades, resulting in a large body of empirical research. In particular, cross-national studies are often limited in data sources, which restrict variable selection to debatable proxy indicators. This study therefore uses meta-analytic techniques to examine major cross-national predictors of homicide to determine strengths and weaknesses in theory and design. The findings indicate several critical limitations to cross-national research, including biased sample composition, a lack of theoretical clarity in predictor operationalizations, and an overwhelming reliance on cross-sectional design. The predictors that showed the strongest mean effects were Latin American regional dummy variables, income inequality indicators and the Decommodification Index. Conversely, static population indicators, democracy indices, and measures of economic development had the weakest effects on homicide.

Do legitimate polities have fewer homicides? A cross-national analysis

This research is concerned with developing and testing models of political legitimacy as a predictor of homicide on the cross-national level. Specifically, we used Bruce Gilley’s (2006) theoretically driven indicator of political legitimacy to examine its direct and moderating effects on homicide. This measure is available for 65 nations, and is composed of indicators representing a state’s capacity to obey its own laws (legality), the degree to which civil and political values coincide (justification), and the level of behavioral consent of the people (consent). After controlling for a number of widely acknowledged predictors, legitimacy was found to be significantly negatively related to homicide.

Legitimacy and crime: Theorizing the role of the state in cross-national criminological theory

One of the primary components of state stability and order is that citizens consider those in power just and legitimate. Citizens who perceive the state as legitimate are likely to consider its institutions a valid source of morality and social control.  Theoretically, legitimacy should play an important role in criminal offending across countries. This link between state power and citizens—that is, legitimacy—has the potential to be an important social mechanism connecting state actions to individual criminal behaviours. With this in mind, this article explores how political legitimacy might affect levels of crime and violence across countries.  A lack of legitimacy may lead citizens to (1) reject the monopoly of physical force to employ self-help and/or (2) withdraw commitment from institutions, breaking down social control.

The Social and Developmental Antecedents of Legal Cynicism

Objectives: This study explores the social and developmental antecedents of legal cynicism. This study comprises a range of indicators organized into four domains—bonds to institutions, predispositions, experiences, and delinquent involvement—that bear on theoretically plausible mechanisms involved in the development of legal cynicism. Methods: This study examines four pathways to legal cynicism using data from two waves of the Zurich Project on the Social Development of Children and Youths (N = 1,226). Ordinary least squares (OLS) procedures are used to regress legal cynicism at t 2 (age 15) on social and psychological characteristics measured at t 1 (age 13), and retrospective variables measured at t 2. Baseline legal cynicism was included as a covariate in all models. Results: The results show that self-reported delinquency is the strongest predictor of legal cynicism. There is also evidence that alienation from society, negative experiences with police, and association with deviant peers can foster legal cynicism. Conclusions: This study shows that legal cynicism is to a small extent the result of alienation from social institutions and negative experiences with the police. To a much larger degree, legal cynicism seems to represent a cognitive neutralization technique used to justify one’s previous self-reported delinquency.

INSTITUTIONAL INEFFECTIVENESS, ILLEGITIMACY, AND PUBLIC SUPPORT FOR VIGILANTISM IN LATIN AMERICA†

Why do individuals or groups support vigilantism as a means of conflict resolution? Most researchers tend to agree that support for and participation in vigilantism occurs in “stateless locations,” that is, when formal justice institutions are weak or absent. Despite this general consensus, quantitative evidence of this relationship is limited to a handful of country-specific studies that used only subjective survey-based measures of institutional weakness. This study seeks to extend research on vigilantism by assessing the relationship between subjective and objective conditions of formal justice institutions and public support for vigilantism across 323 provinces in 18 Latin American countries by using the 2012 AmericasBarometer Survey. Specifically, this study uses multilevel logistic regression techniques to examine the variability of public support for lethal vigilantism within and across Latin American countries. When controlling for a wide range of potential confounds, the results show that the most robust predictors of support for violent vigilantism are subjective indicators of institutional illegitimacy, personal victimization, and punitive attitudes. Evidence also exists that objective insecurity, as measured by province-level homicide rates, fosters public support for violent vigilantism in certain situations.

Sex differences in aggression among children of low and high gender inequality backgrounds: A comparison of gender role and sexual selection theories

It is well understood in aggression research that males tend to exhibit higher levels of physical aggression than females. Yet there are still a number of gaps in our understanding of variation in sex differences in childrens aggression, particularly in contexts outside North America. A key assumption of social role theory is that sex differences vary according to gender polarization, whereas sexual selection theory accords variation to the ecological environment that consequently affects male competition [Archer, J. (2009). Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 32, 249-311; Kenrick, D., & Griskevicious, V. (2009). More holes in social roles [Comment]. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 32, 283-285]. In the present paper, we explore these contradicting theoretical frameworks by examining data from a longitudinal study of a culturally diverse sample of 863 children at ages 7-13 in Zurich, Switzerland. Making use of the large proportion of children from highly diverse immigrant background we compare the size of the sex difference in aggression between children whose parents were born in countries with low and with high levels of gender inequality. The results show that sex differences in aggression are generally larger among children with parents from high gender inequality backgrounds. However, this effect is small in comparison to the direct effect of a childs biological sex. We discuss implications for future research on sex differences in childrens aggression.

Developmental Predictors of Violent Extremist Attitudes: A Test of General Strain Theory

Objectives: This study examines the influence of collective strain on support for violent extremism among an ethnically diverse sample of Swiss adolescents. This study explores two claims derived from general strain theory: (1) Exposure to collective strain is associated with higher support for violent extremism and (2) the effect of collective strain is conditional on perceptions of moral and legal constraints. Methods: This study uses data from two waves of the Zurich Project on the Social Development of Children and Youth. We use ordinary least squares procedures to regress violent extremist attitudes at age 17 on strain, moral and legal constraints, and control variables measured at ages 15 to 17. Conditional effects were examined using an interaction term for collective strain and moral neutralization and legal cynicism, respectively. Results: The results show that collective strain does not have a direct effect on violent extremist attitudes once other variables are controlled. However, the degree to which individuals neutralize moral and legal constraints amplifies the impact of collective strain on violent extremist attitudes. Conclusions: This study shows that those who already espouse justifications for violence and rule breaking are more vulnerable to extremist violent pathways, particularly when exposed to collective social strife, conflict, and repression.

Determinants of satisfaction with police in a developing country: a randomised vignette study

ABSTRACT This study examines the effects of three theoretical factors representing both process-based and outcome-based dimensions of police actions on attitudes towards police using an experimental vignette design. We constructed two vignettes depicting citizens’ plausible encounters with police in an urban setting in a developing country (i.e. Accra, Ghana) and varied the level of police procedural justice, measured by quality of treatment, lawfulness, measured by whether or not a bribe is present, and effectiveness, measured by whether or not the offender was caught. In line with previous research, we find that dimensions of police procedural justice, lawfulness, and effectiveness all increase citizens’ satisfaction. However, we find that in certain situations, unlawfulness and ineffectiveness can undermine any positive influence of procedural justice policing on satisfaction. These findings have implications for criminal justice institutions seeking to improve relations with citizens and boost satisfaction and ultimately legitimacy.

Achieving population-level violence declines: implications of the international crime drop for prevention programming

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations for the period 2016–2030 aim to achieve a substantial reduction of interpersonal violence. An increasing body of evidence of what works, emerging from randomized controlled trials, can inform public health policy decisions. However, there is very limited evidence on the kinds of mechanisms that lead to sustained declines in interpersonal violence at the population level. We discuss the implications of what is known about recent major declines in violence to guide violence-reduction policies.

Global burden of armed violence 2011: lethal encounters, by the Geneva Declaration Secretariat

The majority of criminological studies on lethal violence to date focus specifically on homicide as an effect of broad socio-economic forces such as inequality or poverty. In doing so, these studie...