John D. McCluskey

Exposure to Community Violence and Childhood Delinquency

Community-level factors such as disadvantage, disorder, and disorganization have been linked to a variety of antisocial and illicit activities. Although crime and deviance tend to concentrate in areas with these characteristics, not all residents of disorganized neighborhoods participate in proscribed activities. This study examines the relationship between exposure to community violence and involvement in assaultive behavior and weapon carrying among a sample of at-risk youth. Findings demonstrate that controlling for the effects of neighborhood disadvantage as well as other common correlates of delinquency (e.g., family supervision and structure, school attachment, and peer delinquency), youth who witnessed more violence in their neighborhoods were more likely to self-report assaultive behavior and weapon carrying. This research has important implications for the study of delinquency by further identifying the social costs of community violence.

Causes of School Bullying: Empirical Test of a General Theory of Crime, Differential Association Theory, and General Strain Theory

A growing number of studies indicate the ubiquity of school bullying: It is a global concern, regardless of cultural differences. Little previous research has examined whether leading criminological theories can explain bullying, despite the commonality between bullying and delinquency. The current investigation uses longitudinal data on 655 Korean youth, in three schools, to examine the applicability of leading criminological theories (general theory of crime, differential association theory, and general strain theory) in explaining school bullying. Overall, our findings indicate limited support for the generality of these three leading criminological theories in explaining the etiology of bullying. However, the findings show the significant effects of school-generated strains (teachers’ physical and emotional punishment and examination related strain) on bullying. Directions for future research and policy implications of these findings are discussed.

Parents, Friends, and Serious Delinquency: An Examination of Direct and Indirect Effects Among At-Risk Early Adolescents

Family context has been identified as a central domain in the study of delinquency, particularly during early childhood. As youth enter adolescence peer associations become a much stronger influence. Using a sample of preadolescent youth, this research examines the effect of family and peer relationships on delinquency. Specifically, path analysis is used to test the effects of family structure, parental supervision, and parental attachment on serious delinquent behavior to determine if a youths family life has a unique effect on serious delinquent behavior, or if familial relationships are mediated by peer associations. Findings suggest that parental variables are indirectly related to subsequent, serious delinquency, whereas delinquent peer association exerts a strong, direct effect. The study offers insight into the roles that a youths family life and peer associations play in explaining delinquent behavior. In addition, the findings highlight the need for interventions that encourage pro-social relationships among youth.

Peer group aggressiveness and the use of coercion in police–suspect encounters

The aim of this paper is to add the dimension of police ‘peer group’ to our understanding of how officers exercise coercive power in day‐to‐day encounters with citizens. Using data from the Project on Policing Neighborhoods (POPN) collected in St Petersburg, Florida, we examine 1,458 police–suspect encounters to determine whether collective peer group attitudes towards aggressive patrol influences police use of force behavior. Analysis of the direct effect of peer groups’ attitudes toward aggressiveness on the use of force indicates it is not a significant predictor when officer, suspect, and situational characteristics are controlled. Models comparing officers across high and low aggressive peer groups, however, indicate that different factors are salient to the use of higher levels of force across those groups. The implications of these findings and future research are discussed.

General Strain Theory and School Bullying: An Empirical Test in South Korea

Despite recognition of bullying as a serious school and social problem with negative effects on students’ well-being and safety, and the overlap between aggressive bullying acts and delinquent behavior, few empirical studies test the applicability of criminological theories to explaining bullying. This limitation in research is especially evident in studies of non-Western countries. Using longitudinal data on 2,817 South Korean youth, the current study attempts to fill the gaps by examining whether general strain theory can explain school bullying. As the theory suggests, youth who experience victimization by peers and conflict with parents are more likely to engage in bullying. However, there is limited evidence of the expected interaction effects between strains and conditioning factors. Inconsistent with general strain theory, parental attachment and positive relationships with teachers do not condition the effects of strains, and anger is not a mediating variable. Implications for interventions and for future research are discussed.

Systematic Social Observation in Criminology

Systematic social observation (SSO) came to criminology at the hand of Albert J. Reiss, Jr., who, in the 1960s, encouraged social scientists to shed some “nonsensical” views about the limits and benefits of different forms of observing social phenomena (Reiss 1968, 1971b). Reiss objected to the notion that direct observation of social phenomena in their natural setting was work for solo researchers using qualitative methods, while survey research was suitable as a group enterprise with many researchers using a systematized protocol to gather quantified data. Reiss argued that both direct social observation and survey research were in fact forms of observation that must confront the same set of challenges to produce interpretable information, that both were amenable to either solo or group practice, and that both could be used effectively for discovery or validation of propositions about social phenomena. Beyond these insights, Reiss’s important contribution to criminology was the development and practice of the techniques of SSO. Acknowledging that others before him had associated social field observation with the sorts of systematic protocols that had become popular in survey research, Reiss demonstrated how SSO could be used to answer important questions about what influences police–citizen interactions, with implications for theories about police–citizen relationships and for public policies concerning justice, race relations, and crime control. Since Reiss, criminologists have expanded the application of SSO more broadly, but it is still used relatively infrequently.

Diversity in Policing

Abstract Police and minority relations have received much interest among public and academic audiences, yet little is known about policing in Latino communities. As Latinos emerge as the largest minority group in the United States, researchers and police agencies are increasingly concerned with the experience of Latinos in the criminal justice system. One strategy for improving police and community relations is to enhance the diversity of law enforcement agencies. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine the ethnic composition of law enforcement agencies in major U.S. metropolitan areas between 1990 and 2000. Using data from the U.S. Census and the Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS) survey, it appears that the growth in the U.S. Latino population has been met with an increase in the percentage of Latinos as sworn full-time police officers. Further, the degree of enhanced diversity varies by the ethnic composition of the community served. Implications of findings for improving relations between police and the Latino community are discussed.

Gender, General Theory of Crime and Computer Crime: An Empirical Test

Regarding the gender gap in computer crime, studies consistently indicate that boys are more likely than girls to engage in various types of computer crime; however, few studies have examined the extent to which traditional criminology theories account for gender differences in computer crime and the applicability of these theories in explaining computer crime across gender. Using a panel of 2,751 Korean youths, the current study tests the applicability of the general theory of crime in explaining the gender gap in computer crime and assesses the theory’s utility in explaining computer crime across gender. Analyses show that self-control theory performs well in predicting illegal use of others’ resident registration number (RRN) online for both boys and girls, as predicted by the theory. However, low self-control, a dominant criminogenic factor in the theory, fails to mediate the relationship between gender and computer crime and is inadequate in explaining illegal downloading of software in both boy and girl models. Theoretical implication of the findings and the directions for future research are discussed.

Who Do You Refer? The Effects of a Policy Change on Juvenile Referrals

This article examined the effect that limiting police discretion regarding juvenile court referrals had on the referral of first-time juvenile arrestees to a county family court. Data were drawn from Lakeside, a midsized Midwestern police department, and are composed of juvenile arrest and county court records. Data were compiled on all juveniles arrested for the first time in 1993 (prepolicy change) and 1995 (post-policy change). Overall, juveniles were more likely to be referred to the county family court following the policy change. Younger offenders and offenders with less serious offenses were, consonant with our hypotheses, significantly more likely to be processed through the court after the policy change. Contrary to our expectations, the findings indicate that the likelihood of referral for race and gender combinations did not change significantly. This research highlights the importance of controlling for policy changes when examining trends in juvenile arrests and referrals.

Parent and teacher practices as sources of low self-control evidence from Korea

The current research seeks to illuminate whether parenting is the predominant source of the development of self-control, or whether teachers contribute to the development of self-control among Korean youths. The findings indicate that Korean adolescents whose parents monitor and/or teachers discipline them when they engage in deviant behaviors are more likely to report higher levels of self-control. Also, the results indicate that youths with low self-control are more likely to engage in delinquency. These findings provide partial support for the generality and applicability of the theory in explaining deviance among Korean youths. Taking a broad perspective, our findings, however, may raise a serious theoretical question about Gottfredson and Hirschi’s assertion that parental socialization is the only primary source of the development of self-control.