Karen F. Parker

Race, Local Life Circumstances, and Criminal Activity

Objective. Life–course researchers suggest that changes in local life circumstances explain changes in criminal activity in adulthood. Although the extent to which local life circumstances propel offenders toward/away from criminal behavior is a subject of considerable debate, the issue of race has largely been ignored. The objective in this research is to incorporate race into a life–course perspective that examines the influence of changes in life circumstances on changes in criminal activity. Methods. This objective is met by using longitudinal data on 524 parolees released from the California Youth Authority (CYA) who were followed for seven consecutive years after release. Results. The results suggest that changes in local life circumstances are related to changes in criminal activity, but do not eliminate the race/crime relationship for violence. At the same time, the effect of local life circumstances on criminal activity appears more similar than different across race, with the exception that common–law marriages are crime–generating among nonwhites as compared to whites. Conclusions. Because race continues to be associated with criminal activity over the life course, future research should increase efforts to better understand how race might condition life circumstances when influencing criminal activity. Implications of these findings for life–course theory are discussed.

A Contextual Study of Racial Profiling Assessing the Theoretical Rationale for the Study of Racial Profiling at the Local Level

In this article, the authors argue for the importance of a contextualized examination of racial profiling. Although the study of racial profiling has only begun, existing studies have typically examined this phenomenon at the state level and based on total population information gathered from high-patrol agencies. The authors argue that racial profiling is best understood within the spatial context of local areas rather than large geographical areas. The purpose of this article is to explore some theoretical avenues to investigating racial profiling within the community context by linking racial profiling to theoretical perspectives that highlight community-level processes. That is, the authors apply theories such as social disorganization, urban disadvantage/deprivation, and Sampson’s community development and spatial diffusion arguments to the incident of racial profiling. The authors then illustrate the utility of exploring these linkages by providing information on crimes and structural dimensions in Miami-Dade County neighborhoods.

Adding another Piece to the Inequality-Homicide Puzzle: The Impact of Structural Inequality on Racially Disaggregated Homicide Rates

Criminologists have produced mounting evidence that economic deprivation, social disorganization, and racial inequality are associated with homicide rates. Our research agenda incorporates both criminological and structural inequality theories into the study of the influence of structural covariates on race-specific homicide rates. We examine the effects of economic deprivation, labor market competition, racial segregation, and racial inequality on interracial and intraracial homicide rates for a sample of U.S. cities in 1980. The results of principal components and multiple regression analyses suggest that economic deprivation affects the intraracial homicide rates for Whites and Blacks, as well as the rates of White interracial homicide offending. Racial segregation and racial inequality were found to contribute significantly to the Black interracial homicide rate. In addition, we find that labor market competition affects the rates of White and Black interracial homicide. The contribution of structural theories for studies of homicide and the implications of these findings are discussed.

A Move Toward Specificity: Examining Urban Disadvantage and Race-and Relationship-Specific Homicide Rates

The purpose of this research is to estimate the differential impact of structural conditions on race- and relationship-specific homicide rates for U.S. cities in 1990. The structural conditions commonly employed in race-specific homicide research are examined, such as job accessibility, economic deprivation, racial segregation, and racial inequality. Furthermore, four relationship categories of homicide—acquaintance, family, stranger, and intimate—are disaggregated by racial group. The detailed relationship-specific homicide rates are compared to a baseline homicide rate to determine whether structural factors associated with urban disadvantage similarly influence homicide rates across relationship types. The results indicate that differences emerge in the impact of structural conditions on homicides disaggregated by race- and relationship-specific categories. Theoretical explanations consistent with criminology and race-relations literature are discussed, as well as the potential benefits and implications for studies that pursue more meaningful and detailed classifications in homicide offending.

Gender Role Ideology, Homophobia and Hate Crime: Linking Attitudes to Macro-Level Anti-Gay and Lesbian Hate Crimes

ABSTRACT The relationship between traditional gender role ideology and homophobia has frequently been suggested in social science literature. Few studies, however, have empirically examined the relationship between these cultural conceptions, and far fewer studies have linked gender roles and homophobia to actual behaviors. This study fills a gap in the existing literature by incorporating attitudinal measures of gender role ideology and homophobia from the General Social Survey with macro level indicators of gender stratification when examining acts of gay and lesbian hate crime victimization. Specifically we estimate whether macro level indicators of attitudes toward gays and lesbians and gender views have direct and indirect effects on incidents of hate crime. We find that homophobia and gender stratification directly influence the incidents of hate crime victimization. Although we also find an empirical relationship between gender role ideology and homophobia, homophobia does not mediate the relationship between gender role ideology and incidents of hate crimes based on sexual orientation. Implications of our findings are discussed.

Structural Theories and Race-Specific Drug Arrests: What Structural Factors Account for the Rise in Race-Specific Drug Arrests Over Time?

Studies examining the structural correlates of urban crime have generated a large body of research; however, few studies have linked the structural conditions to race-specific drug arrests. In this study, the authors examine the impact of urban disadvantage, social disorganization, and racial threat indicators on the rise in race-specific drug arrests from 1980 to 1990. They find these theoretical perspectives contribute to an understanding of the change in race-specific drug arrests. Findings indicate that shifts in the urban economy significantly affected Black drug arrests, while having no effect on the change in White drug arrests. In addition, the shift away from manufacturing jobs significantly affected Black arrests for drug possession. Consistent with the theory, social disorganization measures proved equally significant for Whites and Blacks, whereas mixed support was found for racial threat arguments. The importance of a theoretically grounded exploration into the rise in racial disparities in drug arrests is highlighted.

Women, Region, and Types of Homicide Are there Regional Differences in the Structural Status of Women and Homicide Offending?

This study assesses the regional differences in the relationship between womens economic and social status and homicide offending. Specifically, this study investigates whether the status of women differs significantly in the South relative to non-South regions of the United States and if so, how these disparities translate into regional variations in female homicides by relationship type (e.g., acquaintances, family members, and nonfamily intimates). The findings show regional differences in the status of women, but these differences do not consistently reveal more traditional or lower statuses among Southern women as predicted. Moreover, the structural position of women contributes more to explained variance in types of homicide within the non-South region as compared to the South.

The political economy of urban homicide: assessing the relative impact of gender inequality on sex-specific victimization.

This research examines the ways in which the changing political economy of urban areas has contributed differently to the homicide victimization rates of females and males across US cities. Recent research, while relatively limited, has presented disparate results regarding the effect of gender inequality on urban sex-specific victimization. Our work further explores this relationship by taking into account relative gender disparities in income, education, labor market opportunities, and politics in an examination of sex-specific homicide victimization in 1990. Key to this current investigation is the evaluation of feminist and lifestyle arguments that suggest that structural gender inequality has a unique effect on female victimization. Overall, our findings reveal gender inequality to be a significant predictor of both male and female urban homicide. While these findings suggest mixed support for theoretical arguments regarding gender inequality, further analyses reveal significant differences in specific types of gender inequality on victimization patterns across genders. These additional results highlight the need for greater attention toward both methodological and theoretical issues when examining the interconnections between gender, political economy, and violence in research.

Racial Threat, Urban Conditions and Police Use of Force: Assessing the Direct and Indirect Linkages Across Multiple Urban Areas

Traditionally explanations of police use of force have relied on a racial threat perspective. Tests of this perspective, however, typically offer a single indicator of threat (the relative size of the black population) and fail to adequately take into account the complex relationship between racial threat and police use of force. Drawing on racial threat, social disorganization, and police use of force literature, this study hypothesizes that macro-level patterns in police use of force are embedded in the racial and structural composition of cities and the organizational climate of local politics and police departments. The present study examines these relationships using official police use of force data collected in 73 large U.S. cities. Structural equation analyses suggest that structural indicators associated with racial threat and social disorganization/disadvantage impact police use of force indirectly through the influence of police organizational factors. On the other hand, the political climate and the level of social disorganization in urban areas have a direct bearing on the rates of police use of force. The implications of these findings for research and theory on police use of force are discussed.

Making a Difference: The Impact of Traditional Male Role Models on Drug Sale Activity and Violence Involving Black Urban Youth

Elijah Andersons Code of the Street provides an ethnographic account of a disadvantaged urban environment where residents face poverty and racial residential isolation. For Anderson, joblessness among African-American men deprive youth of positive male role models, creating a context for the “street code” to govern behavior, leading youth to violence. Similarly, a disadvantaged urban setting in which opportunities in legitimate labor markets are lacking fosters an environment where youth may seek illicit markets for a means of economic support. Drawing on Andersons work, we assess the availability of male role models (older, employed black males) and the concentration of urban disadvantage on black juvenile drug sales and violent arrests across multiple cities in 2000. We find Andersons concerns over the removal of traditional role models as a result of rising disadvantage in a Philadelphia community to be generalized to large urban areas. Specifically, we find that the presence of traditional role models reduces aggravated assaults by youth, but male role models are unable to reduce the economic lure of drug sales for black urban youth in disadvantaged environments.