Carter Hay

Traditional Bullying, Cyber Bullying, and Deviance: A General Strain Theory Approach

Agnew’s general strain theory (GST) has received significant empirical attention, but important issues remain unresolved. This study addresses three such issues. First, the authors examine the effects of bullying—a source of strain that may be consequential, but that has been neglected in GST research to date. Second, drawing from recent research on deliberate self-harm among adolescents, the authors examine the effects of bullying not just on externalizing deviance (aggressive acts committed against others and their property) but also on internalizing deviance directed against the self. Third, the authors examine these relationships separately for males and females to assess sex differences in responses to strain. These three issues are examined with self-report data collected from a sample of middle and high school students in a Southeastern state. The analysis reveals that bullying is consequential for both externalizing and internalizing forms of deviance and that these relationships are in some instances moderated by sex.

The Impact of Community Disadvantage on the Relationship between the Family and Juvenile Crime

Prior research on the family has identified many variables significantly associated with criminal involvement, including such things as parental supervision and discipline and the quality of the parent-child relationship. However, little attention has been devoted to the possibility that the effects of these variables on crime depend on characteristics of the social context in which a family resides. Using data from a national sample of adolescents, the authors examined how the effects of key family variables depend on two indicators of a communitys level of disadvantage: its objective level of community poverty (as indicated by U.S. census data) and its perceived inadequacy as a place to raise children (as rated by parents). The analysis suggests that community disadvantage significantly amplifies the effects on crime of problems in the family environment. The implications of this conclusion for criminological theory and future research on the causes of crime are addressed.

The Effect of Racial Inequality on Black Male Recidivism

Macrostructural opportunity theorists posit that the unequal distribution of economic resources across racial groups promotes animosities among disadvantaged minorities, disrupts community integration, and fosters criminal activity. Guided by this framework, we hypothesize that Black ex‐prisoners who reenter communities with high levels of racial inequality are more likely to commit new crimes. Support for this argument is found for a large group of males (N = 34,868) released from state prisons to 62 counties in Florida over a 2‐year period. We also find evidence that racial inequality amplifies the adverse effects of person‐level risk factors on recidivism for Black ex‐inmates. In comparison, the effect of inequality on White male recidivism is far less meaningful. These findings underscore the need for researchers to consider social context when studying recidivism among Black males, and also support the efforts of correctional reformers who advocate for state resources to assist prisoner reentry.

Life-course transitions, self-control and desistance from crime.

In recent years a number of studies have observed empirical associations between the occurrence of key life events such as marriage, employment, and military service, and desistance from crime. The relationships between these life-course transitions and changes in criminal behaviour have been cited as evidence in support of social control and social learning theories of delinquency and in contradiction to alternative theoretical perspectives that downplay the significance of life events in the development of criminal behaviour over the lifespan. In this paper we develop and test an alternative explanation for the apparent impact of marriage on criminal and delinquent behaviour. We argue that transitions such as marriage might also promote desistance, in part, by enabling offenders to develop and exercise increased self-control. We then test this hypothesis using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) and explore the implications of our findings for the study of desistance and for self-control theory.

Stability and Change in Risk Seeking: Investigating the Effects of an Intervention Program

Although much is known about the consequences of low self-control, little is known about how it develops during adolescence and what types of experiences trigger important changes. This study considers this by examining a key component of low self-control—risk-seeking propensity—to determine its stability and change during early adolescence, its effects on changes in delinquency, and its responsiveness to a comprehensive delinquency-reduction program. These issues were examined with data from the Children at Risk (CAR) program, a randomly assigned intervention that targeted early adolescents. The analysis revealed substantial stability in risk seeking, but there was evidence of change as well, and these changes were associated with contemporaneous changes in delinquency. Risk-seeking changes were not, however, a result of participation in the CAR program, despite that program’s success at reducing some forms of delinquency. The theoretical and policy implications of these findings are addressed.

Criminal Propensity, Social Context, and Recidivism A Multilevel Analysis of Interactive Relationships

With almost 700,000 inmates released annually in the United States, the predictors of successful reentry have received considerable attention. Prior research documents that recidivism is influenced by both ex-inmate characteristics and social context. Little attention, however, has been paid to the role social context might play in moderating the effects of individual-level risk factors. Using inmate release data from the Florida Department of Corrections and other sources, we examine whether contextual factors that promote crime and antisocial behavior amplify the association between individual criminal propensity and recidivism. Our analysis offers limited support for the moderating effects of context, suggesting that the relationship between criminal propensity and recidivism is substantial and largely independent of community characteristics. We discuss the implications of the findings for theory, research, and policy.

The Conditional Impact of Official Labeling on Subsequent Delinquency: Considering the Attenuating Role of Family Attachment

Objectives: Recent tests of labeling theory reveal a criminogenic effect of official labels. Drawing from Braithwaite and Sherman, the current study examines how the effects of a criminal label on recidivism vary by the degree of warmth and attachment found in the family environment. Method: Using ordinary least squares regression and product-term analysis, the authors tested their hypothesis using data from the Children at Risk program, which contains a sample of high-risk youths. Findings: Family attachment, examined across several waves of data, significantly diminishes the harmful effects of a criminal label. Conclusions: Results suggest that warm, supportive parents can reduce the likelihood that their children will reoffend. Their findings also imply that the labeling perspective may need further specification regarding the conditions under which a labeling effect is most likely to occur. Implications for juvenile justice policy are also discussed.

Has Roe v. Wade Reduced U.S. Crime Rates? Examining the Link Between Mothers’ Pregnancy Intentions and Children’s Later Involvement in Law-Violating Behavior

Rates of serious crime in the United States dropped greatly throughout the 1990s for virtually all offenses. John Donohue and Steven Levitt have argued that this reduction relates strongly to the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized the abortion of unwanted pregnancies. If such pregnancies result in children with higher lifetime risks of criminality, then the greater ability to terminate these pregnancies after 1973 should reduce crime rates. The purpose of this article is to empirically assess Donohue and Levitt’s basic premise that unwanted pregnancies result in children with significantly higher risk for law-violating behavior. This analysis addresses two questions. First, do children born of an unwanted pregnancy become more highly involved in juvenile delinquency during adolescence and criminal behavior during early adulthood? Second, do the consequences of unwanted pregnancies depend upon the social and demographic characteristics of the child and family? The authors address these two questions with panel data gathered from a national sample of children born prior to Roe v. Wade.

Parental Sanctions and Delinquent Behavior: Toward Clarification of Braithwaite's Theory of Reintegrative Shaming

Almost a decade ago, John Braithwaite (1989) put forth an innovative theory of crime causation in Crime, Shame and Reintegration. In his theory of reintegrative shaming, Braithwaite locates the source of crime control in reactions to deviance that simultaneously evoke remorse from offenders for the rules they have violated and reinforce the individuals membership in the community of law-abiding citizens. In the period since its publication, the theory has influenced both the fields of criminal justice and academic criminology. However, apparent interest in the theory has not been translated into empirical tests of it. This article argues that the scarcity of empirical tests stems in large part from the lack of theoretical clarity in Braithwaites statement of the theory. In general, definitions of key concepts and strategies for their measurement are provided at a minimum level and at times the theory omits necessary considerations. The purpose of this article is to correct these errors and demonstrate how the microlevel portion of the theory can be tested and thereby encourage empirical tests of a potentially valuable theory of crime causation.

Negative Cases in the Nexus Between Self-Control, Social Bonds, and Delinquency

Gottfredson and Hirschi view social bonds and crime as spurious correlates that are associated largely because each results from self-control. Prior tests undermine this hypothesis, pointing to negative cases that run counter to its logic. The authors examine this issue with attention to negative cases in which self-control does not translate into the expected level of social bonding. Analyzing data from a sample of U.S. adolescents, the authors found that negative cases constitute between 8% and 27% of cases and that assessing them sheds new light on the interconnections between self-control, social bonds, and delinquency.