Jacob T.N. Young

The context of control: A cross‐national investigation of the link between political institutions, efficacy, and collective action

Most research on efficacy and participation in collective action has focused on single country samples with little attention paid to the relationship between efficacy and country-level structural factors. Drawing on value expectancy theory, we theorize a link between macro-level political institutions and micro-level efficacy. To address the previous limitations in the efficacy and collective action literature, we use multi-level, cross-national data, and present results from a series of hierarchical models testing whether efficacy increases collective action cross-nationally, whether political institutions affect efficacy, and whether the effect of efficacy on collective action is conditional on political institutions. We find that efficacy increases collective action, that certain political institutions increase efficacy, and that the effect of efficacy on collective action is partly conditional on the inclusiveness of a countrys political institutions. These findings suggest the insufficiency of purely structural as well as social psychological explanations of collective action.

Toward a Criminology of Inmate Networks

The mid-twentieth century witnessed a surge of American prison ethnographies focused on inmate society and the social structures that guide inmate life. Ironically, this literature virtually froze in the 1980s just as the country entered a period of unprecedented prison expansion, and has only recently begun to thaw. In this manuscript, we develop a rationale for returning inmate society to the forefront of criminological inquiry, and suggest that network science provides an ideal framework for achieving this end. In so doing, we show that a network perspective extends prison ethnographies by allowing quantitative assessment of prison culture and illuminating basic characteristics of prison social structure that are essential for improving inmate safety, health, and community reentry outcomes. We conclude by demonstrating the feasibility and promise of inmate network research with findings from a recent small-scale study of a maximum-security prison work unit.

What do Alternative Measures of Peer Behavior Tell Us? Examining the Discriminant Validity of Multiple Methods of Measuring Peer Deviance and the Implications for Etiological Models

Deviant behavior tends to be more strongly correlated with respondents’ perceptions of peer deviance than with actual peer deviance. However, research has yet to discern between two interpretations of this finding. On one hand, respondent perceptions of peer deviance may simply be “biased” indicators of actual peer behavior or alternative measures of one’s own deviance. On the other, respondent perceptions and actual peer deviance may reflect fundamentally separate constructs. The present study uses two separate statistical methods to discern the empirical validity of each interpretation. It then illustrates the importance of the measurement results with a series of cross-lagged panel analyses assessing how a researcher’s operationalization of peer deviance impinges upon conclusions about the bidirectional relationship between personal and peer deviance. Measurement results across two separate behavioral domains (property crime and substance use) suggest that actual peer deviance items reflect a construct fundamentally separate from both personal and perceived peer deviance. Likewise, results fail to support the claim that peer deviance items are simply alternative measures of one’s own deviance. Cross-lagged structural equation results are consistent with the notion that personal deviance affects both later perceptions of peer deviance and actual peer deviance. Yet, null or very weak effects of either peer deviance measure on personal deviance are observed. In light of our findings, we discuss the necessity for new theorizing concerning the complex relations among personal behavior, perceived peer behavior, and actual peer behavior.

Diffusion of Ideas and Technology: The Role of Networks in Influencing the Endorsement and Use of On-Officer Video Cameras

On-officer videos, or body cameras, can provide objective accounts of interactions among police officers and the public. Police leadership tends to view this emerging technology as an avenue for resolving citizen complaints and prosecuting offenses where victims and witnesses are reluctant to testify. However, getting endorsement from patrol officers is difficult. These incongruent cognitive frames are a cultural barrier to the utilization of innovative technologies. Understanding the mechanisms that lead to the deconstruction of these barriers is essential for the integration of technology into organizations. Using affiliation data collected from a large police department in Southwestern United States over a 4-month period, we find that interactions with other officers provide a conduit for facilitating cognitive frames that increase camera legitimacy.

VIOLENT OFFENDING AND VICTIMIZATION IN ADOLESCENCE: SOCIAL NETWORK MECHANISMS AND HOMOPHILY†

Although violent offending and victimization share many features, they can affect adolescent social relationships in distinct ways. To understand these differences, we take a network approach to examine the mechanisms responsible for similarities (i.e., homophily) in violent offending and violent victimization among friends. Our goal is to determine whether the social network mechanisms that produce homophily for violent offending are similar to or different from those that produce homophily for violent victimization. By using stochastic actor-oriented modeling and two waves of friendship network data for 1,948 respondents from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, we examine homophily mechanisms of preference for similarity, avoidance, and influence with respect to youth violence and victimization. The results demonstrate that homophily observed for violent offending primarily reflects selection of similar others, whereas homophily observed for victimization reflects the tendency among alters to avoid victimized youth. These findings have important implications for future research and suggest that, among adolescents, violent offending and victimization homophily are the result of unique social processes.

Parental low self-control, parental socialization, young adult low self-control, and offending: a retrospective study

Significant attention has been directed at evaluating Gottfredson and Hirschi’s claim that parental socialization has a direct influence on self-control and an indirect influence on criminal behavior. Yet, only recently have researchers investigated the role parental self-control occupies in shaping these processes. To advance research in this area, the current study utilizes data collected on a sample of young adults (n = 420) to examine how parental low self-control is related to parental socialization, young adult low self-control, and young adult offending. In support of the hypothesized model, the results of a structural equation model indicate the effect of parental low self-control on young adult low self-control is indirect through parental socialization, the effect of parental socialization on young adult offending is indirect through young adult low self-control, and the effect of parental low self-control on young adult offending is indirect through both parental socialization and young adult low self-control.

Social Networks and Delinquency in Adolescence: Implications for Life-Course Criminology

Over the last decade, social networks have become a focal concern for research seeking to understand the etiology of delinquent behavior. The study of the role of peers in the perpetuation of delinquency during adolescence has been reinvigorated by the theoretical and empirical rigor relational data and social network analysis brings to the study of human relationships. The development and availability of statistical models designed to account for the inherent dependencies in relational data, such as stochastic actor-oriented models (e.g., SIENA), exponential random graph models (ERGM), and actor–partner interdependence models (APIM), have led to a greater understanding of the role of selection, homophily, and socialization in the study of crime and delinquency. Furthermore, longitudinal data sets, such as the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), have yielded invaluable insights into the dynamic nature of the adolescent social landscape over time and the mapping of behavioral pathways to this context. However, the focus on the adolescent time frame provides insights into relationships for only a portion of the human life cycle. Therefore, in this chapter, we provide a broad overview of the changing nature of adolescent peer networks and their importance for delinquency and crime. We place particular emphasis on the implications for understanding trajectories of crime and turning points in the life course. Our goal is to provide the reader with a greater understanding of dyadic, egocentric, and global network structures in which people are embedded and how each of these relationship levels can be set in motion to capture the continuity and change common to the human social experience. We develop an ambitious research agenda that involves a unifying discussion of social networks and social capital in criminological theory. We put forth topics for an innovative research agenda grounded in the relevant literature with the goal of articulating a research plan that will help spark empirical and theoretical advancements in life-course criminology.

Where “Old Heads” Prevail: Inmate Hierarchy in a Men’s Prison Unit

Research on inmate social order, a once-vibrant area, receded just as U.S. incarceration rates climbed and the country’s carceral contexts dramatically changed. This study returns to inmate society with an abductive mixed-methods investigation of informal status within a contemporary men’s prison unit. We collected narrative and social network data from 133 male inmates housed in a unit of a Pennsylvania medium-security prison. Analyses of inmate narratives suggest that unit “old heads” provide collective goods in the form of mentoring and role modeling that foster a positive and stable peer environment. We test this hypothesis with Exponential Random Graph Models (ERGMs) of peer nomination data. The ERGM results complement the qualitative analysis and suggest that older inmates and inmates who have been on the unit longer are perceived by their peers as powerful and influential. Both analytic strategies point to the maturity of aging and the acquisition of local knowledge as important for attaining informal status in the unit. In summary, this mixed-methods case study extends theoretical insights of classic prison ethnographies, adds quantifiable results capable of future replication, and points to a growing population of older inmates as important for contemporary prison social organization.

Specifying the Sources of Misperceptions of Peer Deviance: A Tale of Two Levels

“Peer deviance” is normally measured through one’s perceptions of the deviant behavior of friends. However, recent research suggests that peer deviance perceptions may be inaccurate and unreflective of a peer’s actual deviance. Using dyadic data, the current study addresses the potential for three distinct sources of misperceptions of peer deviance stemming from (a) the actor who generates the perception, (b) the friend about whose deviance is perceived, and (c) the friendship between the actor and the friend. Using multilevel regression alongside analyses of variance (ANOVAs), results demonstrate that misperceptions, overperceptions, and underperceptions of peer deviance occur frequently and systematically covary with the deviant behavior of the perceiver, the friend, and the total amount of deviance within the friendship.

A behavior genetic analysis of the tendency for youth to associate according to GPA

Abstract Behavior genetic research has revealed that many “environmental” variables are partially influenced by genetic factors. Known as gene–environment correlation (rGE), this line of scholarship provides insight on how and why individuals select into certain environments. Juxtaposing this body of evidence with research on peer group homophily—the tendency for peers to resemble one another on certain traits such as academic ability—raised two research hypotheses: (1) youth will associate with peers who receive grades similar to themselves (i.e., homophily for GPA); and (2) a portion of the variance in peer group GPA (i.e., the peer network average GPA) will be explained by individuals’ genetic self-selection into the peer group (rGE). The results supported both hypotheses by showing a strong predictive relationship between the target individuals GPA and that of his/her peers and by revealing that 72% of the variance in peer group GPA was explained by genetic influences.