Gregory M. Zimmerman

Neighborhood Context and the Gender Gap in Adolescent Violent Crime

Research consistently demonstrates that females engage in less criminal behavior than males across the life course, but research on the variability of the gender gap across contexts is sparse. To address this issue, we examine the gender gap in self-reported violent crime among adolescents across neighborhoods. Multilevel models using data from the Project of Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN) indicate that the gender gap in violent crime decreases as levels of neighborhood disadvantage increase. Furthermore, the narrowing of the gender gap is explained by gender differences in peer influence on violent offending. Neighborhood disadvantage increases exposure to peer violence for both sexes, but peer violence has a stronger impact on violent offending for females than for males; this produces the reduction in the gender gap at higher levels of disadvantage. We also find that the gender difference in the relationship between peer violence and offending is explained, in part, by (1) the tendency for females to have more intimate friendships than do males and (2) the moderating effect of peer intimacy on the relationship between peer violence and self-reported violent behavior.

Impulsivity, Offending, and the Neighborhood: Investigating the Person–Context Nexus

The traditional trait-based approach to the study of crime has been challenged for its failure to acknowledge differences in the social environments to which individuals are exposed. Similarly, community-level explanations of crime have been criticized for failing to take into account important individual differences between criminals and non-criminals. Ultimately, a full understanding of crime requires the consideration of both individual and environmental differences, perhaps most importantly because they may interact to produce offending behavior. Yet little criminological research has examined if the effects of individual-level characteristics vary by the context in which they are embedded. The current study addresses this gap in the literature by using multivariate, multilevel item response models to examine if the influence of impulsivity on offending differs as a function of neighborhood context. Analyses using data from the Project of Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods reveals that the effects of impulsivity are amplified in neighborhoods with higher levels of socioeconomic status and collective efficacy, and lower levels of criminogenic behavior settings and moral/legal cynicism. Implications of these findings for research and policy are discussed.

Individual, Family Background, and Contextual Explanations of Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Youths’ Exposure to Violence

We used data from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods to examine the extent to which individual, family, and contextual factors account for the differential exposure to violence associated with race/ethnicity among youths. Logistic hierarchical item response models on 2344 individuals nested within 80 neighborhoods revealed that the odds of being exposed to violence were 74% and 112% higher for Hispanics and Blacks, respectively, than for Whites. Appreciable portions of the Hispanic-White gap (33%) and the Black-White gap (53%) were accounted for by family background factors, individual differences, and neighborhood factors. The findings imply that programs aimed at addressing the risk factors for exposure to violence and alleviating the effects of exposure to violence may decrease racial/ethnic disparities in exposure to violence and its consequences.

Person-in-Context Insights on Contextual Variation in the Victim–Offender Overlap Across Schools

The correlation between victimization and offending (i.e., the victim–offender overlap) is one of the most documented empirical findings in delinquency research, leading researchers to investigate potential contingencies in this relationship. A small number of studies have found evidence of contextual variation in the victim–offender overlap, but these studies have produced conflicting results as to whether urban context amplifies or attenuates this relationship. To add clarity to this body of literature, the present study uses a nationally representative sample of adolescents from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) to investigate potential variation in the victim–offender overlap across school context. Results indicate that victimization is positively and significantly related to offending in all school contexts but that the relationship between victimization and offending is stronger in non-urban schools than in urban schools. Results also indicate that negative emotionality may play a key role in unpacking the mechanisms through which context moderates the victim–offender overlap.

Low Self-Control in “Bad” Neighborhoods: Assessing the Role of Context on the Relationship Between Self-Control and Crime

Although a wealth of research has substantiated the relationship between self-control and offending independent of an array of theoretically relevant covariates, little is known about the contextual variability of this relationship. Our study contributes to the literature by assessing neighborhood variability in the explanatory effect of self-control on individual offending in two Eastern European cities: Lviv, Ukraine and Nizhni Novgorod, Russia. Using data elicited from interviews with 1,431 respondents across 41 neighborhoods, we examine the extent to which the relationship between self-control and offending is moderated by neighborhood socioeconomic status (SES), and investigate the role of illegal opportunities and neighborhood morality as intervening processes accounting for the cross-level interaction between self-control and neighborhood SES. Estimates from hierarchical linear models indicate that self-control effects on offending are contingent upon ecological characteristics. However, neighborhood morality, and not neighborhood SES or neighborhood opportunities for crime, is a direct moderator of these effects.

Risk Factors for and Behavioral Consequences of Direct Versus Indirect Exposure to Violence

Research suggests that direct exposure (personal victimization) and indirect exposure (witnessing or hearing about the victimization of a family member, friend, or neighbor) to violence are correlated. However, questions remain about the co-occurrence of these phenomena within individuals. We used data on 1915 youths (with an average age of 12 years at baseline) from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods to examine this issue. Results indicated that youths who tended to be personally victimized were also likely to witness violence; conversely, youths who disproportionately witnessed violence were relatively unlikely to experience personal victimization. In addition, direct and indirect exposures to violence were associated with subsequent adverse outcomes in similar ways. The key distinguishing factor was, rather, the cumulative level of violence (both direct and indirect) to which youths were exposed.

Measuring Up: Assessing the Measurement Properties of Two Self-Control Scales

Gottfredson and Hirschis self-control theory is one of the most empirically tested explanations of criminal behavior. Yet questions remain about the operationalization of self-control. Researchers have examined the relationship between self-control and crime predominantly with the Grasmick et al. (1993) scale. However, research investigating the measurement properties of that scale has relied primarily on statistical techniques that may underestimate or fail to detect potential problems with the scale. In addition, Hirschi (2004) recently offered a revised operational definition of self-control, which he argued is more faithful to the original theory. To date, research using Hirschis revised self-control measure is sparse. We contribute to the literature by using Rasch measurement and negative binomial models to examine the measurement properties and construct validity of the Grasmick et al. (1993) and Hirschi (2004) self-control scales. The findings indicate that while there are some differences, and revisions are necessary, both scales demonstrate adequate measurement properties and construct validity.

Incorporating Unstructured Socializing Into the Study of Secondary Exposure to Community Violence: Etiological and Empirical Implications

Secondary exposure to community violence, defined as witnessing or hearing violence in the community, has the potential to profoundly impact long-term development, health, happiness, and security. While research has explored pathways to community violence exposure at the individual, family, and neighborhood levels, prior work has largely neglected situational factors conducive to secondary violence exposure. The present study evaluates “unstructured socializing with peers in the absence of authority figures” as a situational process that has implications for secondary exposure to violence. Results indicate that a measure of unstructured socializing was significantly associated with exposure to violence, net of an array of theoretically relevant covariates of violence exposure. Moreover, the relationships between exposure to violence and three of the most well-established correlates of violence exposure in the literature—age, male, and prior violence—were mediated to varying degrees by unstructured socializing. The results suggest a more nuanced approach to the study of secondary violence exposure that expands the focus of attention beyond individual and neighborhood background factors to include situational opportunities presented by patterns of everyday activities.

Detecting Specialization in Interpersonal Violence Versus Suicidal Behavior

PURPOSE Research suggests that interpersonal violence and suicidal behavior often co-occur and share a common set of risk factors. This study examined (1) the extent to which individuals specialize in interpersonal violence or suicidal behavior and (2) the shared and unique covariates of individual specialization. METHODS The Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods is a longitudinal study of youths embedded within neighborhoods in metropolitan Chicago. Interviews with youths (average age, 15 years at baseline) and their primary caregivers were conducted from 1994 to 1997 (baseline) and from 1997 to 2000 (Wave 2). Analysis used an item response theory-based statistical approach on 19,502 interpersonal violence and suicidal behavior item responses from 1,628 youths within 74 neighborhoods to assess the degree to which individuals specialize in either interpersonal violence (ranging from hitting someone to shooting someone) or suicidal behavior (ideation, planning, and attempted suicide). The extent to which variables distinguished interpersonal violence and suicidal behavior was assessed. RESULTS Individuals who engaged in high levels of interpersonal violence were unlikely to engage in suicidal behavior. Conversely, individuals who engaged in high levels of suicidal behavior were also likely to engage in interpersonal violence. Several shared (e.g., residential stability, substance use) and distinguishing (e.g., exposure to violent peers, depression) correlates of interpersonal violence and suicidal behavior were detected. CONCLUSIONS Interventions that address both self- and outward-directed violence must be evidence based. Addressing violence prevention among youths at risk for suicidal behavior appears warranted, but targeting risk factors for suicide among the most violent youths may not be justified.

Do Age Effects on Youth Secondary Exposure to Violence Vary across Social Context

Many studies have documented an increasing prevalence of secondary exposure to community violence from childhood through young adulthood. Yet inconsistencies exist in the findings, with some studies reporting a weak association, or no association, between age and exposure to community violence. This study investigates whether the disparate study findings reflect unmeasured but consequential neighborhood dynamics for the relationship between age and exposure to violence. Using data from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods, this study contributes to the literature by examining variability in the relationship between age and exposure to community violence across neighborhood context. The results of hierarchical Poisson models support the hypothesis that age disparities in exposure to violence are attenuated in more disadvantaged neighborhoods. Results further indicate that high levels of community violence are responsible for the suppression of individual variation in age in extremely disadvantaged communities.