David Brownfield

Gang Membership, Race, and Social Class: a Test of the Group Hazard and Master Status Hypotheses

This article examines the extent to which gang membership, race, and social class affect a youths chances of being arrested, independent of their self-reported delinquent behavior. We couple the concepts of group hazard and master status to frame our theoretical predictions. Using data from the Seattle Youth Study (Hindelang, Hirschi, and Weis 1981), we find that the odds of being arrested are roughly similar for gang and nongang members, controlling for the nature and level of self-reported delinquency. While being a gang member does not pose a group hazard to being arrested, a youths master status based on race and social class is associated with arrest risk. Both being black and lower class increases a youths odds of being arrested, independent of delinquency. Neither race nor class effects can be accounted for by the frequency with which youth hang out with their best friends. We propose several recommendations for reducing race and class profiling.This article examines the extent to which gang membership, race, and social class affect a youths chances of being arrested, independent of their self-reported delinquent behavior. We couple the concepts of group hazard and master status to frame our theoretical predictions. Using data from the Seattle Youth Study (Hindelang, Hirschi, and Weis 1981), we find that the odds of being arrested are roughly similar for gang and nongang members, controlling for the nature and level of self-reported delinquency. While being a gang member does not pose a group hazard to being arrested, a youths master status based on race and social class is associated with arrest risk. Both being black and lower class increases a youths odds of being arrested, independent of delinquency. Neither race nor class effects can be accounted for by the frequency with which youth hang out with their best friends. We propose several recommendations for reducing race and class profiling.

A latent structure analysis of delinquency

This paper uses latent structure analysis to develop a construct of delinquency based on a set of frequently used indicators of illegal behavior. Other methods, such as Guttman scaling and factor analytic procedures, are briefly reviewed as similar attempts to identify manifest (observed) variables that may act as indicators of a latent (unobserved or unobservable) variable, delinquency. The basic mathematical properties of the latent structure model employed in this paper are presented and then applied to a set of six self-report measures. The issue of external validity is also examined in a comparative analysis of an additive scale of delinquency and the latent class measure of delinquency. The latent class measure provides a considerable increase in the magnitude of association with such commonly studied correlates as attachment, peer delinquency, and instrumental attitudes toward the law.

Father‐son relationships and violent behavior

Contrary to the compulsive masculinity thesis advanced in the Moynihan Report, the physical absence of the father is found to be unrelated to the self‐reported violent behavior of black and white boys. In general, however, identification with a father figure is a significant barrier to violent behavior. Black and white boys whose fathers have a history of unemployment are more likely to engage in violent behavior than sons of fully employed fathers. The relevance of these findings for social control and cultural deviance theories of delinquency is discussed.

The Measurement of Parental Influence

The influence that parents have on the social, behavioral, and psychological status of their children is the focus of a large and important body of literature in the social sciences. The data collected to study parental influence often describe individual mothers and fathers, leaving the researcher with the problem of representing the joint influence of these individuals as parents. A diagonal ANOVA model is proposed to represent parental influence as the weighted effects of one variable that describes father and one that describes mother. Extensions of the diagonal model that facilitate tests of various hypotheses pertaining to variation in the relative influence of mother and father are proposed. Models that represent the effects of asymmetry of parental characteristics are discussed as well. This application of the diagonal ANOVA model is illustrated using data on the effects of social bonds to mother and to father as a deterrent to the delinquent behavior of black and white male adolescents.

A reassessment of cultural deviance theory: The use of underclass measures

This paper reassesses Millers version of cultural deviance theory utilizing underclass measures to define the subculture. Previous research has ignored the potential of underclass measures such as...

Stubborn Children: Controlling Delinquency in the United States, 1640-1981.

John Sutton provides a fascinating account of the changing patterns of reform aimed at the control of children in the United States. He focuses on a series of watershed reforms--from colonial Puritan strategies of child control to the nineteenth-century refuge and reformatory movements, to the juvenile court and the recent movement for deinstitutionalization.