Scott A. Desmond

The Power of Place: Immigrant Communities and Adolescent Violence

Despite popular assumptions, criminologists have long recognized that crime rates are lower for various immigrant groups than for similarly disadvantaged African Americans. What accounts for this paradox? In this study, we consider the role of neighborhood context, specifically, the concentration of immigrants within a community, as a protective factor responsible, in part, for lower crime rates among various immigrant groups. We use data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health to examine the relationship between immigrant concentration and adolescent violence, controlling for a variety of individual-level and neighborhood predictors. The findings indicate that immigrant concentration is negatively related to adolescent violence. They also show the protective effects of immigrant concentration are stronger for some types of youth than others.

Religious Development: How (and Why) Does Religiosity Change from Adolescence to Young Adulthood?

Researchers have argued for longitudinal studies that focus more attention on how religious attitudes and behaviors change during adolescence and, especially, as adolescents make the transition to young adulthood. Therefore, the authors use growth curve modeling to examine the infuence of parents and peers on adolescent religious service attendance and belief in the importance of religion using five waves (eight years) of the National Youth Survey (1979–1987). The results suggest adolescents who live with both of their biological parents have higher initial levels of religious service attendance, but their religious service attendance decreases more rapidly over time. The pattern of results for peer attachment is similar. Compared to adolescents with low peer attachment, adolescents with high peer attachment are more likely to attend religious services initially and to believe that religion is important, but their religious service attendance and belief in the importance of religion decreases more rapidly over time.

Divine Justice: The Relationship Between Images of God and Attitudes Toward Criminal Punishment

Some have argued that moralistic considerations trump other factors in determining attitudes toward criminal punishment. Consequently, recent research has examined how views of God influence sentiments regarding criminal punishment. Using the Baylor Religion Survey (BRS) 2005, we find that (a) angry and judgmental images of God are significant predictors of punitive attitudes regarding criminal punishment and the death penalty and (b) images of God as loving and engaged in the world are not consistently significant predictors of attitudes toward criminal punishment, once measures of God’s perceived anger and judgment are considered.

The Power of Place Revisited: Why Immigrant Communities Have Lower Levels of Adolescent Violence

Contrary to popular opinion, scholarly research has documented that immigrant communities are some of the safest places around. Studies repeatedly find that neighborhood immigrant concentration is either negatively associated with crime and delinquency or not related to crime and delinquency at all. Less well understood, however, is why this is the case. A critical limitation of existing research is the exclusion of measures that capture the intervening processes by which immigrant concentration influences crime and delinquency. The current study begins to address this gap in the literature. We use data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health to examine the relationship between neighborhood immigrant concentration and adolescent violence and to assess the extent to which social capital and personal and vicarious victimization may account for this relationship. Contrary to our expectations, social capital and personal and vicarious victimization do not mediate the relationship between neighborhood immigrant concentration and adolescent violence.

RELIGIOSITY, MORAL BELIEFS, AND DELINQUENCY: DOES THE EFFECT OF RELIGIOSITY ON DELINQUENCY DEPEND ON MORAL BELIEFS?

Does the effect of religiosity on delinquent behavior depend on moral beliefs? For example, will religious adolescents refrain from using marijuana, even if they do not believe using marijuana is wrong? We addressed this question using data from the third and fourth waves of the National Youth Survey. The results indicated a significant interaction between religiosity and moral beliefs for marijuana use and getting drunk, but not for hitting or property offenses. Religiosity has a stronger effect on marijuana and alcohol use when adolescents also believe these behaviors are wrong. Conversely, when it is not accompanied by strong moral beliefs, religiosity has less of an effect on marijuana use and drinking.

A Longitudinal Analysis of Neighborhood Crime Rates Using Latent Growth Curve Modeling

Although social disorganization theory provides a framework for understanding how changes in neighborhoods can influence crime rates over time, research on neighborhood characteristics and crime has relied primarily on cross-sectional data. Using a latent growth curve model and longitudinal data on residential burglary and vehicle theft in Indianapolis, measured annually between 1992 and 2006 at the census block group level, the authors analyzed the relationships between neighborhood characteristics and crime trends. For both residential burglary and vehicle theft, baseline models revealed that changes in crime rates were best captured by a quadratic function with an initial linear decrease and subsequent deceleration (slowing) of the decrease. When neighborhood characteristics were included as predictors, change in neighborhood disadvantage was significantly related to changes in both residential burglary and vehicle theft over time, while change in residential stability did not have a significant effect on changes in residential burglary or vehicle theft.

Being Thankful: Examining the Relationship Between Young Adult Religiosity and Gratitude.

Studies show that religious people tend to be more grateful, yet existing research tends to rely on small, non-representative samples and limited measures of religiosity. Therefore, we use a national sample (the National Study of Youth and Religion) and multiple measures of religiosity to examine the extent to which religion is associated with feelings of gratitude. We find that religious efficacy and having religious friends positively predict the extent to which young adults feel grateful. In contrast, religious affiliation, participation in organized religion, private devotion, religious salience, otherworldly beliefs, and being spiritual but not religious are unrelated to experiencing feelings of gratitude.

Prioritizing Social Problems: An Exercise for Exploring Students' Attitudes about Social Problems:

ferent social problems in class, students inevitably disagree with one another and they also disagree with me. Usually the disagreements are mild and respectful, but sometimes they can become emotional and heated. I have developed an exercise to address this difference in attitudes and opinions early in the course and to set the stage for smoother discussions later. Although the exercise generates lively discussions and can be used to introduce students to a lot of