School Honor Cultures and Violence: The Role of Cultural Orientation and Dispersion

Abstract

We examine whether adolescents attending schools with honor-oriented cultures are more likely to engage in violence, net of their own honor attitudes. Studies typically estimate a culture’s strength by averaging the residents’ attitudes, but this cannot adequately account for variation among residents. Recent research in cultural sociology suggests that a culture’s orientation and dispersion are influential. Using data from the Second International Self-Reported Delinquency Study (ISRD-2), we disentangle the honor orientation and homogeneity of school cultures and examine their additive and multiplicative effects on violent offending. We find that adolescents who attend schools with stronger honor-oriented cultures are more likely to engage in violence, irrespective of their own honor attitudes. This relationship is stronger in schools with greater homogeneity. These results suggest that accounting for the honor orientation of school cultures as well as their level of dispersion is important for understanding cultural processes.