Jeffrey T. Ward

Where Does Gender Fit in the Measurement of Self-Control?

Gender’s role in self-control measures has been largely neglected. Although studies show that males have lower self-control than females, rarely have researchers questioned whether items used to measure self-control should be used for both groups. This study uses a Rasch rating scale analysis to assess item functioning of Grasmick et al.’s 24-item self-control scale for males and females. Using a sample of young adults, results indicate that 33% of the scale items showed differential functioning or item bias; that is, after controlling for self-control, females found one third of the items to be either more or less agreeable than males. Once biased items were removed from the scale, males, on average, still had lower self-control than females. In addition, after excluding biased items from the scale, the effect of self-control on criminal behavior and other outcomes was similar to the effect found with the full 24-item scale. Suggestions for future research on Grasmick et al.’s self-control scale are offered, and limitations of the current study are discussed.

Assessing the Generalizability of the Near Repeat Phenomenon

The “near repeat” phenomenon suggests that when a crime occurs in a given area, the surrounding area may exhibit an increased risk for subsequent crime in the days following the original incident. The present study assesses the extent to which near repeats generalize across three different crimes, including shootings, robbery, and auto theft. A series of near repeat models was estimated to further specify the temporal proximity of near repeats for each crime type under investigation. Results showed that a near repeat pattern exists across crime types; however, each crime type has a unique spatiotemporal pattern. Implications for police strategies, such as geographical profiling and future research connecting near repeat patterns to repeat offenders, are discussed.

Assessing the Validity of the Retrospective Behavioral Self-Control Scale

Although there have been nearly 20 years of research on self-control theory, the measurement problems of the theory’s core construct linger and call into question the efficacy of self-control as a predictor of crime and delinquency. This study assessed the validity of a recently introduced behavioral measure of self-control, the Retrospective Behavioral Self-Control (RBS) measure, which is argued to remedy the conceptual and empirical problems afflicting prior self-control measures. Using a sample of students at a large southern university, this study finds that although a unidimensional and content-valid 18-item RBS measure is not as strong a predictor of crime and delinquency as the original RBS, it has substantially more predictive power than the most commonly used attitudinal measure of self-control, the Grasmick et al. scale. The implications of these findings for empirical tests of self-control theory as well as future directions for the measurement of self-control are discussed.

“Which Group Are You In?”: A Preliminary Investigation of Group‐Based Publication Trajectories of Criminology and Criminal Justice Scholars

This study employs Nagin and Land’s (1993; Criminology, 31, 327–362) group‐based trajectory modeling procedure to examine the scholarly productivity of 204 criminology and criminal justice scholars currently employed in PhD granting programs. The results indicate that there are three groups of scholars that publish in a large number of multidisciplinary journals at different rates in their first six years post‐PhD: one group begins low, slightly increasing over time, yet ending low; another group begins with a moderate rate, noticeably increasing over time, and ending strong; and a third group of scholars starts high, surging even higher over time, and ending averaging well above the typical “two” publications per year. When group‐based trajectories were estimated taking into account the number of publications in eight “elite” criminology and criminal justice journals, three similar trajectory groups emerge, although the percentage of scholars in each of the three groups changes considerably. Additional analyses demonstrate that there are factors that also significantly distinguish group membership. Study limitations and implications are discussed.

Differential treatment of female defendants: does criminal history moderate the effect of gender on sentence length in federal narcotics cases?

Past research indicates that men and women are treated differently at the sentencing phase, but the specifics of this relationship have not been fully explicated. The current study draws on the chivalry and evil woman hypotheses to examine how a defendant’s gender may interact with criminal history to affect sentence length in federal narcotics cases. Results indicate that gender’s effect on sentence length is nuanced, complex, and dependent on a defendant’s criminal history score; thus, conditional support is found for both the chivalry and evil woman hypotheses. Specifically, female defendants with lower criminal history scores received more lenient treatment (relative to male defendants) whereas those with higher criminal history scores received more severe sentences. These findings suggest that further exploration of interactions between extralegal and legal factors is necessary to uncover the complex ways in which gender influences court outcomes.

Hirschi’s Redefined Self-Control Assessing the Implications of the Merger Between Social- and Self-Control Theories

The merger of Hirschi’s social bonding and Gottfredson and Hirschi’s self-control theories has resulted in a recent redefinition of self-control as the “tendency to consider the full range of potential costs of a particular act.” The present study clarifies the implications of Hirschi’s redefinition, advances a new measure of redefined self-control, and provides an empirical test of key hypotheses using data from a Midwestern sample of adolescents. Results indicate that the alternative measure of redefined self-control has predictive validity. Although redefined self-control and social bonds are not the same thing, they are moderately correlated. Net of controls, redefined self-control has a significant direct effect on marijuana use and partially mediates the effect of social bonds.

Prenatal exposure to cigarette smoke and childhood externalizing behavioral problems: a propensity score matching approach.

We examined the possibility that the association between maternal smoking during pregnancy and childhood behavioral problems is the result of confounding. Data from the first three waves of the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study were analyzed. We estimated the association between maternal smoking during pregnancy and externalizing problems in three-year olds using a propensity score matching approach. After successfully matching children based on their mothers propensities to smoke during pregnancy, the results indicate that maternal cigarette smoking is related to childhood externalizing behavioral problems, but only among mothers who smoked more than a pack per day while pregnant. At lower levels of exposure, the association between exposure to cigarette smoke in utero and externalizing behavioral problems in childhood can be explained by confounding. The results of this study support prevention efforts intended to reduce prenatal exposure to cigarette smoke, especially by mothers who smoke heavily.

The Effects of Police Contact on Trajectories of Violence A Group-Based, Propensity Score Matching Analysis

This study uses a life course framework to investigate how police contacts may serve as a potential turning point in a violent crime trajectory. Drawing on the central ideas from deterrence and labeling theories, we determine whether individuals on different violent offending trajectories increase or decrease their offending following a police contact. Analyzing nine waves of data from the Rochester Youth Development Study, an integrated propensity score matching and latent class growth model was used. First, three violent trajectory groups emerged including high offenders, non-offenders, and low offenders. Second, after accounting for selection bias using propensity score matching procedures, experiencing a police contact increased the likelihood of future violent offending for the entire sample and for those who were on a low violent-offending trajectory specifically. These findings are interpreted as partial support for labeling theory. Limitations of the study and directions for future research are discussed.

Beyond Projection: Specifying the Types of Peer Delinquency Misperception at the Item and Scale Levels

The perceptual inaccuracy in peer delinquency perceptions has been attributed to projection, a hypothesis stating that individuals impute their own delinquency into perceptions of peer delinquency. While logical, projection can truthfully only explain peer delinquency misperception in one specific situation. Moving beyond projection, we propose there are actually four types of misperception. Using dyadic data, misperceptions are assessed at both the item and scale levels. At the item level, projections of delinquency are not the most frequent type of misperception. Scale-level results reveal that most people are inaccurate and tend to mix various types of misperceptions. Although projection is often linked to overestimations of peer delinquency, those who exclusively misperceive through projection mechanisms tend to underperceive peer delinquency in scale-level perceptions. A key finding shared between item- and scale-level results is perceptions of peer non-delinquency are far more accurate than perceptions of peer delinquency, thus posing serious validity concerns with perceptual measures.

Placing the Neighborhood Accessibility–Burglary Link in Social-Structural Context

Foundational research on the link between neighborhood accessibility and burglary has consistently shown a positive association. However, recent research has found that less accessible neighborhoods have higher burglary rates. Geographically referenced data from 401 neighborhoods in Jacksonville, Florida, are used to determine whether these inconsistencies can be explained by a conditioning effect of neighborhood social-structural context. Results from spatially lagged regression models indicate that neighborhood accessibility fails to have a direct effect on burglary rates after social-structural variables are controlled; rather, the effect of neighborhood accessibility on burglary rates is conditioned by the level of concentrated disadvantage of the neighborhood. Two potential explanations for the empirical findings are offered, and implications of the results for “designing out” crime are discussed.