Ross L. Matsueda

Crime, Deterrence, and Rational Choice

This study examines the deterrent effect of formal sanctions on criminal behavior. While most research on deterrence assumes a rational-choice model of criminal decision-making, few studies consider all of the major elements of the model. In particular, three critical limitations characterize the empirical literature on deterrence: the failure to establish a causal ordering of sanctions and crime consistent with their temporal ordering; the focus on conventional populations and nonserious criminal acts, which are of less interest to the question of how society controls its members; and the inattention to the return or reward component of the decision-making process. To address these issues, we specify, estimate, and test a rational-choice model of crime on data that were collected on individuals, gathered within a longitudinal design, and derived from three distinct populations of persons at high risk of formal sanction. The results support the reward component of the rational-choice model, but fail to support the cost or deterrent component, as measured by perceived risks of formal sanctions. (abstract Adapted from Source: American Sociological Review, 1986. Copyright

Testing control theory and differential association: A causal modeling approach.

A number of strong theoretical statements have been based on analyses of delinquency data from the Richmond Youth Project. Hirschi (1969) and Jensen (1972), in particular, found that Hirschis control theory was empirically supported over Sutherlands theory of differential association. This paper reanalyzes these data and reassesses this negative evidence pertaining to differential association theory. It is shown that the ratio of learned behavior patterns favorable and unfavorable to violation of legal codes, the critical variable in Sutherlands theory, can be operationalized by explicitly modeling its measurement error structure. In turn, this allows the testing of specific hypotheses derived from the theory. The analysis based on this strategy finds differential association theory supported over control theory. Specifically, the unobservable construct representing the ratio of learned behavior patterns successfully mediates the effects on delinquency of the models other variables.

Deterring Delinquents: A Rational Choice Model of Theft and Violence

This article examines criminal behavior from a rational choice perspective, the set of behavioral principles underlying our legal institution. The authors use a subjective utility approach and specify experiential learning models of the formation of risk perceptions and rational choice models of theft and violence. They estimate the models using panel data on high risk youth from the Denver Youth Survey. Using random effects Tobit models of perceived risk and negative binomial models of counts of criminal acts, the authors find support for a rational choice model. Perceived risk follows a Bayesian updating model in which current risk perceptions are a function of prior risk perceptions plus new information based on experience with crime and arrest and observations of peers. Theft and violence are a function of the perceived risk of arrest, subjective psychic rewards (including excitement and social status), and perceived opportunities.

The Current State of Differential Association Theory

With his theory of differential association, Sutherland attempted to identify universal mechanisms that explain the genesis of crime regardless of the specific concrete structural, social, and individual conditions involved. In this article, I discuss the development of the theory and then assess its strengths and weaknesses. After finding Kornhausers (1978) influential critique of differential association theory to be oversimplified and misguided, I review recent empirical tests. I argue that the theory appears supported, but requires additional research to specify the concrete content of its abstract principles. Such respecification will improve the theorys predictions, empirical tests, and implications for public policy. I conclude by proposing several avenues for theoretical and empirical research.

Role-Taking, Role Commitment, and Delinquency: A Theory of Differential Social Control

This paper builds on a symbolic interactionist theory of delinquency that identifies the locus of social control in the process of taking the role of the other According to structural symbolic interactionism, role-taking is linked to the broader social organization through the concepts of generalized others, role commitments, and reference groups. We specify mechanisms affecting delinquency derivedfrom the classical theories of labeling and differential association as special cases of this symbolic interactionist perspective. In contrast, social disorganization and social control theories contradict the assumptions of interactionism and provide a competing set of hypotheses. We translate these hypotheses into a covariance structure model of individual delinquency, and estimate it using panel data from a national sample of males. Our results support the symbolic interactionist perspective: Delinquency is affected by the elements of role-taking-associating with delinquent peers, having delinquent reflected appraisals, and holding delinquent attitudes. Moreover, contrary to social disorganization and social control theories, variables representing social disorganization, attachment, and commitment affect delinquency only indirectly through the differential social control process of role-taking.

The Duration of Homeless Careers: An Exploratory Study

In this article, we examine the duration of homeless careers. We build a model of career length based on four conceptual frameworks: institutional disaffiliation, psychological dysfunction, human capital deficit, and cultural identification. Using survey data from a sample of 331 individuals in Minneapolis, we estimate a structural equation model of homeless career onset and duration. We find that, conditioned on age, people who have less consistent work histories, experienced childhood foster care, and currently express less discomfort with life on the streets have longer homeless careers. Contrary to our hypothesis, we find that people who experienced prehomeless psychiatric hospitalization had relatively shorter homeless careers, and people who suffered from severe symptoms of alcoholism had homeless careers no different in average length than those of other sample members.

Neighborhood Context and Neighboring Ties

This article analyzes whether neighborhood context or environment in Seattle influences dimensions of social ties among neighbors, independent of the individual attributes of residents such as home ownership and socio‐economic status. Three dimensions of neighbor ties are examined: interaction, organizing collectively, and knowing about neighbors. A number of environmental attributes are considered, including the age of the housing, residential stability, levels of affluence, the presence of blacks and foreign born, the concentration of commercial areas (heterogeneous land use), and the degree of upkeep in the area. While many are correlated with neighbor ties, few have a strong relationship with neighbor ties when individual attributes are controlled statistically. We find, in addition, that the importance of context varies with the type of neighbor tie. We discuss the implications of these findings for formulating a contextual theory of neighborhood life.

STATISTICAL POWER IN COVARIANCE STRUCTURE MODELS

During the preparation of this chapter, Ross L. Matsueda received support from the National Institute of Justice, U.S. Department of Justice (82-IJ-CX-0060), and the Graduate School of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. William T. Bielby was supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation to the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (NSF-BNS-76-22443). Opinions expressed in this chapter are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the funding agencies. An earlier version of this chapter was presented at the August 1984 meetings of the American Sociological Association, San Antonio. The authors are grateful to Michael E. Sobel and several anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on that version.

Perceptions of Criminal Injustice, Symbolic Racism, and Racial Politics

This article examines the relationships between perceptions of criminal injustice, symbolic racism, and political outcomes. Building on a group conflict theory of social control and a group position theory of contemporary racism, the authors hypothesize that perceptions of criminal injustice against blacks undermines the legitimacy of social institutions, such as free markets and the legal system, and encourages support for progressive programs, such as affirmative action, to ameliorate the effects of racial discrimination. The authors further hypothesize that perceptions of criminal injustice undermine support for these progressive programs by fostering symbolic racist attitudes. Using data from the American National Election Studies, the authors find preliminary evidence for this perspective. Perceived police racial bias is negatively associated with symbolic racism, which, in turn, is negatively associated with affirmative action, equal opportunity policy, and government action to ensure equal opportunity and positively associated with support for the death penalty and crime spending.

Modeling Criminal Careers as Departures From a Unimodal Population Age–Crime Curve: The Case of Marijuana Use

A major aim of longitudinal analyses of life-course data is to describe the within- and between-individual variability in a behavioral outcome, such as crime. Statistical analyses of such data typically draw on mixture and mixed-effects growth models. In this work, we present a functional analytic point of view and develop an alternative method that models individual crime trajectories as departures from a population age–crime curve. Drawing on empirical and theoretical claims in criminology, we assume a unimodal population age–crime curve and allow individual expected crime trajectories to differ by their levels of offending and patterns of temporal misalignment. We extend Bayesian hierarchical curve registration methods to accommodate count data and to incorporate influence of baseline covariates on individual behavioral trajectories. Analyzing self-reported counts of yearly marijuana use from the Denver Youth Survey, we examine the influence of race and gender categories on differences in levels and timing of marijuana smoking. We find that our approach offers a flexible model for longitudinal crime trajectories and allows for a rich array of inferences of interest to criminologists and drug abuse researchers. This article has supplementary materials online.