Timothy Brezina

Adolescent Maltreatment and Delinquency: The Question of Intervening Processes

A substantial body of research indicates that adolescent maltreatment, like child maltreatment, is associated with elevated levels of delinquency. Criminologists typically account for this relationship by invoking one of three dominant frameworks in criminological theory: “Social control” theorists contend that adolescent maltreatment disrupts important delinquency-inhibiting ties; “social learning” theorists emphasize the deviant values and patterns of behavior that are learned from those that administer maltreatment; whereas “social-psychological strain” theorists emphasize the criminogenic emotions likely to arise among maltreated adolescents, such as anger and resentment. This study uses national survey data to assess the relative merits of these competing explanations. The results provide limited support for all three explanations. The findings are discussed in terms of the need for a more general and complex understanding of the adolescent maltreatment-delinquency relationship.

Relational Problems with Peers, Gender, and Delinquency.

Although there is some evidence to suggest that classic strain theory is applicable to both male and female delinquency, several theorists have argued that a distinct version of strain theory may be required to explain delinquency among females. In particular, whereas male deviance tends to be generated by classic (or economic) strain, female deviance tends to be generated by strain occurring in interpersonal relations. This study attempts to test this argument by examining the relative effects of interpersonal strain on male and female delinquency. An analysis of national survey data reveals that interpersonal strain (or problems in peer relations) is an important correlate of certain types of delinquency among female adolescents. The analysis also reveals, however, that interpersonal strain is perhaps a more important correlate of male delinquency. Implications for the understanding of female delinquency are discussed.

The Code of the Street: A Quantitative Assessment of Elijah Anderson's Subculture of Violence Thesis and Its Contribution to Youth Violence Research

Based on extensive field research, Elijah Anderson argues that the behavior of many youths is influenced by a street culture or “code” that prescribes violent reactions to interpersonal attacks and shows of disrespect. Although Anderson’s account has been well received by the criminological community, questions remain about the validity and generality of his findings. To address these issues, the authors review other (mostly quantitative) studies of youth violence and consider whether the findings of these studies are consistent with Anderson’s account. The authors also conduct analyses to determine whether Anderson’s observations can help to extend the existing body of quantitative research and, hence, further our understanding of youth violence. Overall, the results of this assessment suggest that Anderson’s observations provide valuable insight into the general problem of youth violence and that future research in this area would benefit from greater attention to the social processes he has served to highlight.

Teenage Violence Toward Parents as an Adaptation to Family Strain Evidence from a National Survey of Male Adolescents

Certain strain and social learning theorists contend that child-to-parent violence represents a functional response to family adversity (or strain). In particular, these theorists suggest that child-to-parent aggression can be understood partly as an attempt to cope with negative treatment by parents or other family members. Furthermore, violent responses may work for children, allowing them to terminate such treatment. In this study, longitudinal data from a national survey of male adolescents are analyzed to test the assumption that child aggression represents a functional response to family strain. Consistent with theoretical accounts, the results indicate a reciprocal relationship between parental and child aggression, characterized by countervailing effects. Although aggression by parents (slapping) tends to foster aggression on the part of the male adolescent child, aggression by the male adolescent child tends to deter the assaultive behavior of parents. Implications for criminological theory, research, and the control of violent behavior are discussed.

Delinquent Problem-Solving: An Interpretive Framework for Criminological Theory and Research

A sizable body of evidence suggests that much delinquency can be interpreted as a form of problem-solving behavior in response to the pressures of adolescence. Moreover, certain data indicate that delinquent responses are often experienced by the offender as a reasonably effective means of short-term coping. Thus, in contrast to pathological accounts, it may be legitimate to interpret much delinquency as a form of self-regulation. This article organizes the extant delinquency literature within a problem-solving framework, shows how a problem-solving perspective can shed additional light on the nature of adolescence-limited delinquency, and offers a number of novel research hypotheses to guide future research.

Testing Moffitt’s Account of Delinquency Abstention

An established finding in criminology is that most adolescents engage in delinquency. Still, studies continue to identify a small group of individuals who refrain from delinquency even when it is normative for their same-age peers. Moffitt’s developmental taxonomy provides some reasons for delinquency abstention, but research has been slow to assess these hypotheses. Herein, the authors use data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 to examine one of Moffitt’s unexplored abstention hypotheses: that some individuals abstain because individual characteristics block their access to delinquent peer networks and, hence, opportunities to mimic antisocial behavior. In addition, the authors also present the first empirical examination of gender differences in abstention. The results support some aspects of Moffitt’s hypotheses concerning the importance of peer networks, but provide mixed evidence regarding the personal characteristics associated with delinquency abstention and involvement in deviant peer networks. Directions for future research and theorizing are discussed.

Criminal Self-Efficacy Exploring the Correlates and Consequences of a “Successful Criminal” Identity

Self-efficacy refers to the belief that one can perform successfully at a given task or endeavor. Previous research indicates that self-efficacy in relation to conventional pursuits (e.g., performance in school) is associated with positive social adjustment. However, the possibility that individuals may develop self-efficacy in relation to nonconventional pursuits—including crime and delinquency—remains largely unexplored. In this study, the authors adopt a multimethod approach to explore (a) offenders’ personal judgments regarding their level of effectiveness or “success” at crime, (b) the factors that contribute to high criminal self-efficacy, and (c) the impact of self-efficacy judgments on offenders’ future intentions. Results of quantitative and qualitative analyses reveal that many offenders maintain a strong sense of criminal efficacy despite past arrests, convictions, and incarceration. Moreover, criminal self-efficacy tends to reduce their intentions to desist from crime. Implications for punishment, deterrence, and criminological theory are discussed.

Moral Beliefs, Isolation from Peers, and Abstention from Delinquency

Criminological research has established that the vast majority of young people engage in some level of delinquency and drug use during the period of adolescence. Thus young people who completely refrain from delinquency and drug use are atypical and, as such, are deserving of scientific scrutiny. Perhaps because they have been impressed by the statistical abnormality of delinquency abstention, some researchers have explained this behavior in terms of the characterological abnormality of abstainers, arguing that abstention may be less the result of positive characteristics (such as strong moral beliefs) than the result of pathological traits that serve to isolate abstainers from their peers. In this study, data from a large survey of adolescents are used to help assess the respective roles of moral beliefs and peer isolation in delinquency abstention. The findings challenge certain previous interpretations of delinquency abstention and shed additional light on the forces that help to sustain adolescent conformity. The findings also raise intriguing questions about the stigma attached to delinquency abstainers.

With God on my side: The paradoxical relationship between religious belief and criminality among hardcore street offenders

Research has found that many street offenders anticipate an early death, making them less prone to delay gratification, more likely to discount the future costs of crime, and thus more likely to offend. Ironically, many such offenders also hold strong religious convictions, including those related to the punitive afterlife consequences of offending. To reconcile these findings, we interviewed 48 active street offenders to determine their expectation of an early demise, belief in the afterlife, and notions of redemption and punishment. Despite the deterrent effects of religion that have been highlighted in prior research, our results indicate that religion may have a counterintuitive criminogenic effect in certain contexts. Through purposeful distortion or genuine ignorance, the hardcore offenders we interviewed are able to exploit the absolvitory tenets of religious doctrine, neutralizing their fear of death to not only allow but encourage offending. This suggests a number of intriguing consequences for deterrence theory and policy.

Anger, Attitudes, and Aggressive Behavior: Exploring the Affective and Cognitive Foundations of Angry Aggression

Although general strain theory highlights the role of affective processes in the development of offending behavior, the theory also recognizes the role of cognition. In fact, Agnew and other theorists assert that affective and cognitive processes are interrelated and function together in producing crime and delinquency. In the case of aggression, for example, chronic strain/anger may distort the individual’s attitudes, expand the “regulative rules” associated with aggressive behavior, and increase the perceived legitimacy of a violent response. In this study, the author conducts an empirical examination of this argument using data from a national survey of male adolescents. The findings help to shed light on the affective and cognitive foundations of angry aggression; they not only confirm the key role assigned to angry arousal but also indicate that such arousal leads individuals to devalue nonaggressive responses to various provocations. Implications for criminological theory are discussed.