Jón Gunnar Bernburg

Official Labeling, Criminal Embeddedness, and Subsequent Delinquency A Longitudinal Test of Labeling Theory

This article examines the short-term impact of formal criminal labeling on involvement in deviant social networks and increased likelihood of subsequent delinquency. According to labeling theory, formal criminal intervention should affect the individual’s immediate social networks. In many cases, the stigma of the criminal status may increase the probability that the individual becomes involved in deviant social groups. The formal label may thus ultimately increase involvement in subsequent deviance. We use panel data of a sample of urban adolescents to examine whether involvement in deviant social groups mediates the relationship between juvenile justice intervention and subsequent delinquent behavior. Using measures from three successive points in time, the authors find that juvenile justice intervention positively affects subsequent involvement in serious delinquency through the medium of involvement in deviant social groups, namely, street gangs and delinquent peers.

Routine activities in social context: A closer look at the role of opportunity in deviant behavior

Present versions of the routine activity approach to deviant behavior do not account for the social context of situational motivation and opportunity. Using concepts from social bonding and differential association theories, we argue that the patterning of routine activities is guided in part by the same factors that cause deviant behavior, namely differential social relations. We extend the routine activity approach by arguing that the effect of routine activities on deviant behavior is contingent on peoples differential social relations. Based on cross-sectional survey data from a nationally representative sample of Icelandic adolescents, our findings support these claims. First, there is a considerable decrease in the effect of our routine activities indicator (unstructured peer interaction in the absence of authority figures) on both violent behavior and property offending when we control for differential social relations, namely bonding with conventional agents and associations with deviant peers. Second, the findings indicate that differential social relations play a critical role in moderating the effects of routine activities on deviance.

Relative Deprivation and Adolescent Outcomes in Iceland: A Multilevel Test

The theory of relative deprivation emphasizes that social comparisons contextualize how people experience impoverishment. An important application of this theory argues that relative deprivation that stems from unfavorable social comparisons can result in anger, normlessness and an increased likelihood of deviant behavior. We test this theory in a new societal setting – Iceland. Specifically, we test the proposition that the effects of economic deprivation on individual outcomes are contingent on the standard of living enjoyed by the persons reference groups. Using multilevel data on 5,491 Icelandic adolescents in 83 school-communities, we find consistent support for the theory. We show that the effects of economic deprivation on adolescent anger, normlessness, delinquency, violence and subjective relative family status are weak in school-communities where economic deprivation is common, while the effects are significantly stronger in school-communities where economic deprivation is rare.

Labeling and Cumulative Disadvantage: The Impact of Formal Police Intervention on Life Chances and Crime During Emerging Adulthood

Research in labeling theory has been revived recently, particularly in relation to the effect of labeling on critical noncriminal outcomes that potentially exacerbate involvement in crime. This study partakes in that revitalization by examining direct and indirect effects of police intervention in the lives of adolescents who were followed into their 30s. The authors find that early police intervention is indirectly related to drug use at the ages of 29 to 31, as well as unemployment and welfare receipt. Given that such effects were found some 15 years after the labeling event, on criminal and noncriminal outcomes, and after controlling for intraindividual factors, the authors conclude that the labeling perspective is still relevant within a developmental framework.

Adolescent Violence, Social Control, and the Subculture of Delinquency: Factors Related to Violent Behavior and Nonviolent Delinquency

This study examines whether violence, rather than being an isolated subculture in itself, is a part of a general subculture of delinquency. It also examines the relationship of variables adapted from social control theories to violent behavior and non-violent delinquency. Using Icelandic data, the study supports the notion that violence is a part of a general subculture of delinquency. It finds a strong relationship between violent behavior on one hand and illegal activities, alcohol use, and smoking on the other. Furthermore, it finds that violent behavior is positively related both to violent behavior and to nonviolent delinquency among friends. The findings also support the argument that social control affects violence in a similar way as other forms of delinquency. Factors drawn from social control are significantly related to violence, and correlation patterns are similar to that of non-violent delinquency.

The neighborhood effects of disrupted family processes on adolescent substance use.

In the current paper, we argue that the neighborhood-level of disrupted family processes (weak social ties to parents and coercive family interaction) should have a contextual effect on adolescent substance use (cigarette smoking, heavy drinking, and lifetime cannabis use), because adolescents living in neighborhoods in which disrupted family processes are prevalent should be more likely to associate with deviant (substance using) peers. We use nested data on 5491 Icelandic adolescents aged 15 and 16 years in 83 neighborhoods to examine the neighborhood-contextual effects of disrupted family processes on adolescent substance use (cigarette smoking, heavy drinking, and lifetime cannabis use), that is, whether neighborhoods in which disrupted family processes are common have more adolescent substance use, even after partialling out the individual-level effects of disrupted family processes on substance use. As predicted, we find that the neighborhood-levels of disrupted family processes have significant, contextual effects on all the indicators of substance use, and that association with substance using peers mediates a part of these contextual effects. The findings illustrate the limitation of an individual-level approach to adolescent substance use.

The Global Financial Crisis and Individual Distress: The Role of Subjective Comparisons after the Collapse of the Icelandic Economy

Sociologists have emphasized that abrupt social changes can evoke subjective deprivation that can create subjective injustice and emotional distress. The global economic crisis offers an opportunity to examine this issue. This article builds on relative deprivation theory and proposes that economic crises evoke three subjective comparisons that influence distress: comparisons to 1) past outcomes; 2) the situation of others; and 3) expected future outcomes. Using a national survey obtained during the economic crisis in Iceland, we examine how these comparisons influence subjective injustice and emotional distress (anger and depression). Results indicate that perceived reduction in the standard of living has a more pronounced effect on subjective injustice and anger, 1) when individuals think that the crisis has harmed them more than others; and 2) when they have negative expectations about their future. The study implies that subjective comparisons can moderate the effect of sudden social change on distress.

Community Structural Instability, Anomie, Imitation and Adolescent Suicidal Behavior.

The current study examines the contextual effects of community structural characteristics, as well as the mediating role of key social mechanisms, on youth suicidal behavior in Iceland. We argue that the contextual influence of community structural instability on youth suicidal behavior should be mediated by weak attachment to social norms and values (anomie), and contact with suicidal others (suggestion-imitation). The data comes from a national survey of 14-16 years old adolescents. Valid questionnaires were obtained from 7018 students (response rate about 87%). The findings show that the community level of residential mobility has a positive, contextual effect on adolescent suicidal behavior. The findings also indicate that the contextual effect of residential mobility is mediated by both anomie and suggestion-imitation. The findings offer the possibility to identify communities that carry a substantial risk for adolescent suicide as well as the mechanisms that mediate the influence of community structural characteristics on adolescent risk behavior.

Relative deprivation theory does not imply a contextual effect of country-level inequality on poor health. A commentary on Jen, Jones, and Johnston (68:4, 2009)

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Community Disadvantage, Parental Network, and Commitment to Social Norms Multilevel Study of Self-reported Delinquency in Iceland

– see front matter 2009 Elsevier Ltd. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2009.10.060 In a recent contribution to Social Science & Medicine, ‘‘Global variations in health: Evaluating Wilkinson’s income inequality hypothesis using the World Values Survey’’ Jen, Jones, and Johnston (2009) attempt to evaluate the income inequality hypothesis proposed by Wilkinson et al. (Wilkinson, 1996; Wilkinson & Pickett, 2007). The inequality hypothesis argues that economic inequality is an important determinant of poor health in affluent societies. Using multilevel data on a sample of 69 developed and developing countries, Jen et al. test two main hypotheses. First, they test whether country inequality influences self-rated health, after controlling for the individual-level effect of income on self-rated health (i.e. whether inequality has a contextual effect on self-rated health). By so doing, Jen et al. attempt to follow up on a critique of the research literature on the association between inequality and aggregate poor health, namely, that it may be driven entirely by the individual-level association between income and health (Gravelle, 1998). Second, Jen et al. hypothesize that if inequality causes poor health via relative deprivation (as Wilkinson et al. argue), having low income should have a larger effect on self-rated poor health in more unequal societies. The study finds no support for these hypotheses. First, after controlling for individual relative income (i.e. individual’s household income rank in a given country), inequality has no negative (contextual) effect on self-rated health among affluent nations. Second, the effect of individual relative income on self-rated health is no larger in unequal countries, apparently undermining the notion that inequality influences poor health through relative