Timothy F. Hartnagel

Street youth and labor market strain

Abstract This article applies strain theory to a high-risk sample of homeless street youth, with a particular focus upon labor market strain to predict violent and property crime and substance use. Data were collected through interviews with 200 street youth in a western Canadian city. Labor market strain was found to be related to the frequency of the youths property, violent, and total crimes. Criminal peers and norms were also related to these crimes, as well as to drug use. Results also revealed a significant interaction effect between labor market strain and criminal norms predicting property, violent, and total crime. Interactions between strain and criminal peers, and external attributions also predicted property crime. Contrary to predictions, emotions were unrelated to crime and drug use. The results are discussed in light of Agnews revised strain theory and suggestions are offered for future research on this topic.

Emotions about crime and attitudes to punishment

Various polls and surveys seem to indicate that a substantial proportion of the Canadian public desires harsher penalties for crime. While various explanations have been offered for this punitiveness, emotional reactions to crime have been under-researched. The present research draws on a Canadian data set to test the hypothesis that the emotions of fear and particularly anger about crime are significant predictors of punitive attitudes once crime victimization, economic insecurity, internal attributions of crime causation and other variables are controlled for. This research also examines the possible indirect effects of economic insecurity, victimization and internal attributions of crime causation on punitiveness through their impact on fear and anger. The multiple regression results support the role of emotions, particularly anger, in explaining punitive attitudes. While indirect effects of victimization and economic insecurity were insignificant, 14 per cent of the effect of internal attributions was through anger.

Fractured transitions from school to work : revisiting the dropout problem

This is the first Canadian study to investigate the cause and consequences of the drop-out problem from the perspectives of the participants themselves.

Critique and explanation : essays in honor of Gwynne Nettler

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Subculture of Violence Further Evidence

The subculture of violence hypothesis and its present empirical status are reviewed. A path model of the subcultural hypothesis is developed and tested with survey data collected from adolescents. The predictions of the subcultural model receive only partial support; only a moderate amount of variation in violent behavior is explained. There is some evidence of interaction between sex and the carrying of a weapon. The use of survey data to test the subcultural hypothesis is criticized, as well as the hypothesis itself, and suggestions for future work are offered.

The rhetoric of youth justice in Canada

This article reviews some of the recent political rhetoric and public opinion on the controversial subject of youth crime and how to deal with it, particularly the Young Offenders Act of 1984 and the new Youth Criminal Justice Act of 2002, from a social constructionist perspective. Recent controversy over youth crime and justice is nothing new, reflecting differing views about the causes of crime and the appropriate ways of responding to it as specific manifestations of more fundamental and conflicting ideological assumptions regarding views of human nature, the degree of individual responsibility for behavior, and the fundamental values of society. The debates surrounding the new Youth Criminal Justice Act continue to reflect these ideological conflicts. Generally, there is a substantial gap between much of the rhetoric and the reality of youth crime and justice. Youth crime and justice in Canada is certainly an important issue that requires serious attention, but it is hardly the crisis that some would have us believe. Much depends upon how the new Youth Criminal Justice Act is actually implemented. A failure to alter the usual political rhetoric surrounding youth crime and justice obscures the reality in this area and will contribute to an on-going cycle of controversy that does little to advance efforts of effective crime prevention.

Female Prisoners and the Inmate Code

Models of the prisonization process are presented and the literature concerned with subscription to the inmate code, particularly among female prisoners, is reviewed. Using data collected from female prisoners in two Canadian institutions, multiple regression and path analytic techniques are employed to test the deprivation and importation models. Neither model receives unqualified support, but the importation model fares slightly better. The imported characteristics of age and prior imprisonment have the largest effects on code adherence, and these effects are largely unmediated by other factors; but a combination of variables from both models offers the best prediction. The results are compared with those of previous research and discrepant findings are discussed.

Cannabis use and the transition to young adulthood

Despite the significance of role changes during the process of transition from adolescence to young adulthood, there have been few investigations of how transitional problems may result in increased illicit drug use. Recent structural changes in the economy may have produced a greater likelihood of such transitional difficulties. The present research uses longitudinal panel data from a sample of graduating high school students in three Canadian cities to test a model that predicts change in cannabis use from late adolescence to early adulthood. Young adults with less job stability, weaker occupational and educational commitment should be freer from informal social controls and therefore more at risk for an increased level of cannabis use. However, none of the measures of informal social control processes was an important net predictor of change in cannabis use. Rather, prior cannabis use in high school was of overwhelming importance in predicting use two years later. There was also evidence that having delinquent friends led to increased cannabis use. These results are discussed and suggestions are given for additional research on this topic.

Methodological Issues with Self-Reported Crime and Delinquency: An Analysis from a Canadian Study of the Transition from School to Work

The self-reported delinquency/crime methodology discussed in this paper is only one part of a much larger longitudinal panel study that examines the transition from school to work and, more specifically, the causes and consequences of youth employment, underemployment and unemployment. Self-report delinquency/crime measures were included in the study since we were interested in the possible effects of various labor market variables, including under- and unemployment, on criminal behavior. However, the overall focus of the project placed limitations on the extent to which delinquency/crime measures could be included in the data collection instruments. Thus the present paper should be read as a commentary on self-reported delinquency/crime methodology carried out as part of a broader research project rather than as a study of delinquency/crime per se.

Labour Market Problems and Psychological Well-Being: A Panel Study of Canadian Youth in Transition from School to Work.

Abstract Four‐year panel survey data are used to examine the effects on psychological well‐being of unemployment, underemployment, educational satisfaction, and position in the transition from school to work among Canadian youth. Controlling on social support and baseline psychological status, labour market problems are found to have small, significant negative effects on feelings of self‐esteem, powerlessness, and depression among high school graduates, but not among university graduates. The effects of educational satisfaction and transition status are less clear. ∗ Revised version of a paper presented to the Canadian Sociology and Anthropology Association, June 1992, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada. Financial assistance was provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRCC), the Alberta and Ontario governments, the Solicitor General Canada, the cities of Edmonton and Toronto, the University of Alberta and Laurentian University. Useful suggestions from anonymo...