Thomas L. McNulty

Explaining racial and ethnic differences in adolescent violence: Structural disadvantage, family well-being, and social capital

This article integrates theory and research in criminology and urban sociology to specify a contextual model of differences in adolescent violence between whites and five racial-ethnic groups. The model views these differences as a function of variation in community contexts, family socioeconomic well-being, and the social capital available to adolescents and families. Using data from the National Education Longitudinal Survey, we show that white-black and white-Latino differences in violence are explained by community and family disadvantages, respectively. American Indians are the sole group for whom differences relative to whites are not fully explained. Theoretical and public policy implications of the findings are discussed.

Linking Local Labor Market Opportunity To Violent Adolescent Delinquency

Most criminological theory is cast at either the macro or micro level. Developmental and integrated theories are an exception as they combine community characteristics such as neighborhood poverty with micro-level processes. What remains lacking, however, is attention to labor market conditions. The authors address this gap by testing a contextual model that links local labor market structure, adolescent attachments, and violent delinquency. Analyses draw from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Our findings suggest that low-wage, service sector employment opportunity directly increases the likelihood of violent delinquency. A small proportion of this effect is mediated by school achievement and attachment. The low-wage service sector effect uncovered remains when important micro-level processes including prior violence are controlled. The authors conclude by discussing the persistent low-wage service sector effect, the intervening processes we do uncover, and implications for future theoretical development and research on local labor markets.

Childhood Abuse and Criminal Behavior: Testing a General Strain Theory Model

This article draws on general strain theory (GST) to develop and test a model of the childhood abuse–crime relationship. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health),1 we find that early childhood physical and sexual abuse are robust predictors of offending in adolescence, for the full sample and in equations disaggregated by gender. GST is partially supported in that the effects of childhood physical abuse on offending for both females and males are mediated by an index of depression symptoms, whereas the effect of sexual abuse among females appears to be mediated largely by closeness to mother. The effect of childhood sexual abuse among males, however, is more robust than among females and it persists despite controls for low self-control, ties to delinquent peers, school attachment, and closeness to mother. Theoretical implications of the findings are discussed.

Gang Membership, Drug Selling, and Violence in Neighborhood Context

A prominent perspective in the gang literature suggests that gang member involvement in drug selling does not necessarily increase violent behavior. In addition it is unclear from previous research whether neighborhood disadvantage strengthens that relationship. We address these issues by testing hypotheses regarding the confluence of neighborhood disadvantage, gang membership, drug selling, and violent behavior. A three‐level hierarchical model is estimated from the first five waves of the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, matched with block‐group characteristics from the 2000 U.S. Census. Results indicate that (1) gang members who sell drugs are significantly more violent than gang members that don’t sell drugs and drug sellers that don’t belong to gangs; (2) drug sellers that don’t belong to gangs and gang members who don’t sell drugs engage in comparable levels of violence; and (3) an increase in neighborhood disadvantaged intensifies the effect of gang membership on violence, especially among gang members that sell drugs.

The Residential Process and the Ecological Concentration of Race, Poverty and Violent Crime in New York City

Abstract Drawing on Sampson and Wilsons (1995) theory of urban inequality and related research, I test the hypothesis that the relationship between race and neighborhood exposure to violent crime reflects a residential process in which African Americans are at a substantial disadvantage. Using 1990 crime and census data for New York City, individual-level regression models show sharp racial/ethnic disparities in residential exposure to violent crime, regardless of individual characteristics. Expanded models including contextual variables show that these disparities are explained by the concentration of minorities in poor, minority neighborhoods, with correspondingly higher rates of violence. Findings thus lend substantial support for a community-level, contextual interpretation of racial differences in exposure to violent crime.

Counselor attitudes toward the use of naltrexone in substance abuse treatment: A multi-level modeling approach

Alcohol use disorders (AUDs) continue to be one of the most pervasive and costly of the substance use disorders (SUDs). Despite evidence of clinical effectiveness, adoption of medications for the treatment of AUDs is suboptimal. Low rates of AUD medication adoption have been explained by characteristics of both treatment organizations and individual counselors attitudes and behaviors. However, few studies have simultaneously examined the impact of organizational-level and counselor-level characteristics on counselor perceptions of EBPs. To address this gap in the literature, we use data from a national sample of 1178 counselors employed in 209 privately funded treatment organizations to examine the effects of organizational and individual counselor characteristics on counselor attitudes toward tablet and injectable naltrexone. Results of hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) show that organizational characteristics (use of tablet/injectable naltrexone in the program, 12-step orientation) were associated with counselor perceptions of naltrexone. Net of organizational characteristics, several counselor level characteristics were associated with attitudes toward tablet and injectable naltrexone including gender, tenure in the field, recovery status, percentage of AUD patients, and receipt of medication-specific training. These findings reveal that counselor receptiveness toward naltrexone is shaped in part by the organizational context in which counselors are embedded.

Cognitive Skills, Adolescent Violence, and the Moderating Role of Neighborhood Disadvantage

Numerous studies uncover a link between cognitive skills and adolescent violence. Overlooked is whether the relationship changes at varying levels of neighborhood disadvantage. We examine the issue by contrasting two models that place individual difference in cognitive skill within a social‐structural framework. Using five waves of the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth and a three‐level hierarchical model, results indicate that cognitive skill is inversely associated with violence and that the relationship is strongest in non‐disadvantaged neighborhoods. However, the cognitive skills–violence relationship is indistinguishable from zero in the most disadvantaged neighborhoods. The findings are therefore consistent with the hypothesis that social expression of developed ability is muted in disadvantaged contexts.

Genes, Parenting, Self-Control, and Criminal Behavior:

Self-control has been found to predict a wide variety of criminal behaviors. In addition, studies have consistently shown that parenting is an important influence on both self-control and offending. However, few studies have examined the role that biological factors may play in moderating the relationship between parenting, self-control, and offending. Using a sample of adolescent males drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (N = 3,610), we explore whether variants of the monoamine oxidase A gene (MAOA) and the dopamine transporter (DAT1) gene interact with parenting to affect self-control and offending. Results reveal that parenting interacts with these genes to influence self-control and offending, and that the parenting-by-gene interaction effect on offending is mediated by self-control. The effects of parenting on self-control and offending are most pronounced for those who carry plasticity alleles for both MAOA and DAT1. Thus, MAOA and DAT1 may be implicated in offending because they increase the negative effects of parenting on self-control. Implications for theory are discussed.

Neighborhood Disadvantage and Verbal Ability as Explanations of the Black–White Difference in Adolescent Violence Toward an Integrated Model

This article develops a multilevel model that integrates individual difference and sociological explanations of the Black–White difference in adolescent violence. Our basic premise is that low verbal ability is a criminogenic risk factor that is in part an outcome of exposure to neighborhood and family disadvantages. Analysis of the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth reveals that verbal ability has direct and indirect effects (through school achievement) on violence, provides a partial explanation for the racial disparity, and mediates the effect of socioeconomic disadvantage at the neighborhood level. Results support the view that neighborhood and family disadvantages have repercussions for the acquisition of verbal ability, which, in turn, serves as a protective factor against violence. We conclude that explanation of the race difference is best conceived as originating from the segregation of Blacks in disadvantaged contexts.

Verbal Ability and Persistent Offending: A Race-specific Test of Moffitt’s Theory

Theoretical questions linger over the applicability of the verbal ability model to African-Americans and the social control theory hypothesis that educational failure mediates the effect of verbal ability on offending patterns. Accordingly, this paper investigates whether verbal ability distinguishes between offending groups within the context of Moffitt’s developmental taxonomy. Questions are addressed with longitudinal data spanning childhood through young-adulthood from an ongoing national panel, and multinomial and hierarchical Poisson models (overdispersed). In multinomial models, low verbal ability predicts membership in a life-course-persistent-oriented group relative to an adolescent-limited-oriented group. Hierarchical models indicate that verbal ability is associated with arrest outcomes among White and African-American subjects, with effects consistently operating through educational attainment (high school dropout). The results support Moffitt’s hypothesis that verbal deficits distinguish adolescent-limited- and life-course-persistent-oriented groups within race, as well as the social control model of verbal ability.