Delinquency Research Research Articles

The Person-Computer Interface in Delinquency Research: Proactive Criminal Thinking as a Moderator of the Hacking with Peers–Juvenile Offending Relationship

The Person-Computer Interface in Delinquency Research: Proactive Criminal Thinking as a Moderator of the Hacking with Peers–Juvenile Offending Relationship

Credit and Trust: Management of Network Ties in Illicit Drug Distribution

Moeller, Kim, and Sveinung Sandberg. "Credit and trust: Management of network ties in illicit drug distribution." Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency 52, no. 5 (2015): 691-716. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022427815583912

Trends in Top Journals in Criminology and Criminal Justice

How has publishing in the field of criminology and criminal justice (CCJ) changed over the last thirty years? Using a dataset combining information on all articles published in the “Big 5” CCJ journals from 1985 to 2017 with their Google Scholar Citations, we identify several key trends. There was an observable positive trend in the number of articles published per year since 1985. Similarly, the average page length and the total number of co-authors has increased over time. Older articles were cited more often than newer articles. This is expected, though notable peaks were observed for articles in Criminology (CRIM) and the Journal of Research in Crime & Delinquency (JRCD). Poisson regression results indicate page length, the number of co-authors, and journal affiliation were significant predictors of the number of Google Scholar Citations. The five articles with the largest number of citations for each journal are featured.

Who’s hanging out and what’s happening? A look at the interplay between unstructured socializing, crime propensity and delinquent peers using social network data

One of the key observations of delinquency research – that adolescents are more likely to offend during the time spent in the company of peers and without adult supervision – has been supported by recent studies following Situational Action Theory (SAT). According to SAT, exposure to criminogenic settings may influence adolescent behaviour by presenting opportunities and frictions; however, the outcome is seen as conditional on individual crime propensities and the moral context in which opportunities and frictions are encountered. To what extent the behaviour of adolescents in these settings also depends on the delinquent inclinations of their peers is an additional question that has received less attention. In the current study, we use data from a recent German school survey, including network data and a direct measurement of delinquent friends, to test for interactions between unstructured socializing and the crime propensities of respondents, as well as of their friends, and find support for SAT. In this context the measurement of ‘delinquent friends’ becomes important because its association with an adolescent’s own delinquency is likely to be overestimated when respondents report on their friends’ behaviour. The novel contribution of this study is to analyse how the interplay between these factors changes if one moves from an indirect to a direct measurement of friends’ delinquency. We show that the influence of situations and opportunities is unduly diminished when using the indirect measurement.

An experimental investigation of the influence of deviant peers on own deviancy: A replication study

ObjectivesThis study is a replication of a study examining the causal impact of a brief exposure to deviant peers on own deviant behavior, i.e., Paternoster et al. (Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 50:476–503, 2013). This study retested this design using different monetary incentives and a female deviant peer.MethodsA total of 69 university students (61% female) from the Netherlands participated in this laboratory-based study (Mage = 20.64; SD = 2.00) under the façade of a study on individual differences predicting memory recall. Participants could earn up to 10 euros. All participants had the opportunity to cheat to illegitimately earn more money (deviancy). Participants in the experimental condition were exposed to a deviant peer who verbalized her intention to cheat, justified this behavior, and then visibly cheated on the memory recall task.ResultsAlthough participants in both conditions engaged in some deviancy, the brief exposure to a deviant peer significantly increased the amount of deviancy compared to participants who were not exposed to a deviant peer. These results were consistent after controlling for different demographic and theoretical control variables that predict deviancy.ConclusionsAlthough not identical in magnitude, our results echo those found by Paternoster et al. (2013): Even a brief exposure to a previously unknown deviant peer increases the amount of deviant behavior in young adults. Future research should examine factors predicting the susceptibility to (different types and thresholds of) deviant peer influence.

Progress and Future Directions of Crime Research in China with Selected Case Studies

This special issue of the Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency presents four articles that expand our theoretical and empirical understanding of crime and its prevention in contemporary China. Undertaken mostly by Chinese scholars, these articles are theory-driven inquires that utilize original data to examine critical criminological issues in transitional China. Two of the four papers were initially presented at the 2015 Conference on Crime Geography and Crime Analysis, an annual conference hosted in Guangzhou in early July each year. In addition to introducing these four articles, this paper also provides a summary on progress, challenge, opportunities and future direction of crime research in China.

Relations between three dopaminergic system genes, school attachment, and adolescent delinquency.

Both environmental factors and genetic variation, particularly in genes responsible for the dopaminergic system such as DRD4, DRD2, and DAT1 (SLC6A3), affect adolescent delinquency. The school context, despite its developmental importance, has been overlooked in gene-environment research. Using data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (NICHD ECCYD), this study examined key interactions between school attachment and (a) each of the DRD4, DRD2, and DAT1 (SLC6A3) genotypes; and (b) a polygenic score. Results indicate that there is a main effect of school attachment, unlike genetic variation, on delinquency. Interestingly, there are important interactive effects of school attachment and dopaminergic genotypes on delinquency. Carriers of the DRD2-A1 allele were differentially affected by both positive and negative school environments, whereas DAT1-10R carriers fared the same as 9R homozygotes in poorer and moderate school environments, but fared disproportionately better in more positive environments. Contrary to expectations, youth without the DRD4-7R allele were particularly affected by the school environment. These findings contribute to the literature considering the roles of both context and genes in delinquency research, and inform our understanding of the individual-level traits that influence sensitivity to particular contexts. (PsycINFO Database Record

Race and General Strain Theory: Microaggressions As Mundane Extreme Environmental Stresses

This article spotlights racial microaggressions as relevant for understanding delinquency and the race gap in offending among middle-schoolers. In doing so, we draw on an emerging body of delinquency research rooted in general strain theory that demonstrates the emotional and behavioral tolls of face-to-face discrimination. We contend that this body of research has not established the full impact of racial microaggressions on delinquency because it has not considered that the specter of microaggressive encounters follows African American youth in particular from experience to experience. Specifically, we propose that racial microaggressions influence juvenile offending both directly—as previously documented—and by exacerbating the impact of co-occurring stressful events and experiences on negative emotions and delinquency. Using data collected at a southeastern middle-school, we find support for this proposition, empirically documenting that racial microaggressions interact with co-occurring stressful experiences in OLS models predicting delinquency.

Religiosity and Therapeutic Alliance Among Youth Who Commit Sexual Crimes

Delinquency research argues that youth religion and spirituality are associated with desistence. The therapeutic alliance has been shown to be partially responsible for the influence of religiosity in therapeutic services. Asceticism within religious doctrine coupled with Social Bonding Theory, suggests perhaps existential and secular bonds may be a desistence mechanism or a mitigating factor against crimes like sexual abuse that violate religious or spiritual norms. Nevertheless, research has yet to integrate these concepts and test them among a sample of youth who commit sexual crimes. The present study proposes three hypotheses that use Ascetical and Social Bonding Theory as guiding theoretical frameworks to test the association between religiosity and criminal profiles and the associations between therapeutic alliance and self-reported religious importance. The cross-sectional study draws from original data collected from 332 incarcerated youth adjudicated for a sexual crime. Using validated and researcher-composed instruments and including relevant covariates, we used spearman’s rho correlations and multiple linear regression to test the relationships between criminal profiles, therapeutic alliance, and religiosity. The results indicated that the reported importance of religion prior to arrest is inversely associated with non-sexual criminality, but is not related to severity of sexual offense. Further, there were significant increases in pre-arrest and post-arrest religious importance. The therapeutic alliance predicted post-arrest religious importance. Implications for research and clinical practice are discussed. This study showcases the relationships between religious importance and general delinquent offending and how the therapeutic alliance is associated with religious importance. The findings align with tenants of Social Bonding Theory. These findings have implications for advancing research on religiosity and improving practice approaches for youth with sexual behavior problems.

Are Behavioral Measures of Self-Control and the Grasmick Self-Control Scale Measuring the Same Construct? A Meta-Analysis

The Grasmick attitudinal scale of self-control (Grasmick, Tittle, Bursik, & Arneklev, Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 30, 5–29, 1993) is one of the more commonly used measures in research on Gottfredson and Hirschi’s (1990) self-control concept. What has yet to be determined is whether the Grasmick scale correlates as well with crime and delinquency as behavioral measures of self-control and whether the Grasmick scale correlates better with these behavioral measures than it does with crime and delinquency. A meta-analysis was performed on 13 samples obtained from published research where the Grasmick scale, a behavioral or consequences measure of self-control, and an estimate of crime or delinquency were all administered to participants. All analyses were computed with Comprehensive Meta-Analysis, Version 2 (Borenstein, Hedges, Higgins, & Rothstein, 2005) software. The results of the meta-analysis revealed that the Grasmick scale and behavioral/consequences measures of self-control achieved comparable correlations with concurrent measures of crime and delinquency but correlated no higher with each other than they did with crime and delinquency. Four possible interpretations of these results are considered: (1) the self-control concept advanced by Gottfredson and Hirschi is a tautology; (2) the attitudinal and behavioral/consequences measures of self-control are measuring different constructs; (3) self-control is a multidimensional construct; (4) self-report measures of behavioral self-control are inadequate for assessing low self-control.

What Journals are the Most Cited Journals in Criminology and Criminal Justice’s “Big Three” Journals?

Recently, scholars have sought to learn more about scholarly activity within the fields of criminology and criminal justice (CCJ). Research in this area has examined which departments have the most productive faculty, which scholars are the most productive, and which journals are the most prestigious. However, no study of which we are aware has determined what journals criminologists are most likely to cite in their scholarly research. In this study, we rank the most influential journals by the number of times those journals were cited between 2009 and 2013 in Criminology, the Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, and Justice Quarterly. Our analyses suggest that Criminology is clearly the most influential CCJ journal in terms of citations, while the American Sociological Review, the Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, and the American Journal of Sociology remain influential in CCJ as well.

Kids, Groups, and Crime

Objectives: The objective of this analysis is to address the data and conclusions of Lisa Stolzenberg and Stewart D’Alessio in their article “Co-offending and the Age-crime Curve,” published in The Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency in 2008. The authors analyze National Incident–based Reporting System (NIBRS) 2002 arrests from seven states and conclude that most arrests at all ages involve only one offender, and therefore group offending is of little etiological significance. Methods: To test their claims, we conduct offense-specific analyses of single and multiple arrests using the full 2002 NIBRS arrest data set. Results: After disaggregating the data by type of offense, we find group involvement among young offenders dominates the arrest statistics for all serious crimes other than rape and aggravated assault. Conclusions: Contrary to the conclusions of Stolzenberg and D’Alessio, co-offending does appear to have a substantial impact on young offenders. The extent of adolescent crime as group behavior may be a cliché in criminological circles, but this is because the empirical evidence for it is substantial.

Person-in-context: insights on contextual variation in the victim-offender overlap across schools.

The correlation between victimization and offending (i.e., the victim-offender overlap) is one of the most documented empirical findings in delinquency research, leading researchers to investigate potential contingencies in this relationship. A small number of studies have found evidence of contextual variation in the victim-offender overlap, but these studies have produced conflicting results as to whether urban context amplifies or attenuates this relationship. To add clarity to this body of literature, the present study uses a nationally representative sample of adolescents from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) to investigate potential variation in the victim-offender overlap across school context. Results indicate that victimization is positively and significantly related to offending in all school contexts but that the relationship between victimization and offending is stronger in non-urban schools than in urban schools. Results also indicate that negative emotionality may play a key role in unpacking the mechanisms through which context moderates the victim-offender overlap.

Strengthening Theoretical Testing in Criminology Using Agent-based Modeling.

Objectives: The Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency (JRCD) has published important contributions to both criminological theory and associated empirical tests. In this article, we consider some of the challenges associated with traditional approaches to social science research, and discuss a complementary approach that is gaining popularity—agent-based computational modeling—that may offer new opportunities to strengthen theories of crime and develop insights into phenomena of interest.Method:Two literature reviews are completed. The aim of the first is to identify those articles published in JRCD that have been the most influential and to classify the theoretical perspectives taken. The second is intended to identify those studies that have used an agent-based model (ABM) to examine criminological theories and to identify which theories have been explored.Results:Ecological theories of crime pattern formation have received the most attention from researchers using ABMs, but many other criminological theories are amenable to testing using such methods.Conclusion:Traditional methods of theory development and testing suffer from a number of potential issues that a more systematic use of ABMs—not without its own issues—may help to overcome. ABMs should become another method in the criminologists toolbox to aid theory testing and falsification.

The First 50 Years of the Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency

From its first publication in 1964–2014, 890 articles have been published by The Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency ( JRCD). During that period, the criminal justice field has experienced major transformations in its policies, theories, and practices. This article identifies major periods in the development of criminal justice policy; which are Prepolitical Era (1964–1972), Tough on Crime Era (1972–1980), National Consensus on Crime Policy Era (1980–1996), and Retrenchment Era (1996–2012). It then traces changes in the subject matter of JRCD over those periods. The articles published by the JRCD over the past half century reflect the changes in eras.

Using Developmental Science to Reorient Our Thinking About Criminal Offending in Adolescence

The concept of adolescent development has become a relevant consideration for researchers interested in juvenile delinquency. However, the integration of constructs from developmental psychology into delinquency research is still in its early stages. This article argues that it is time to move beyond description of adolescent antisocial activities and to integrate developmental activities into delinquency research as mediators or moderators. Relevant examples of such an approach are presented.

Looking Back to Move Forward

When Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency was first published, criminology was in the midst of an important research stream on the measurement of offending. This never solidified into a strong subdiscipline akin to psychometrics, however. After briefly discussing the goals of measurement and how they correspond to the explanation of criminal events and behavior, the authors consider how the prevailing methodological paradigm, which relies heavily on analysis of a limited number of data sets via variable-based regression techniques, may constrain measurement progress on the whole. In doing so, they highlight the imbalance between the growing sophistication of analytic models and the relative stagnation of the employed data sets and measures. The article then provides some examples of exceptions to this broad trend—both in terms of data collection and measurement techniques. Finally, the authors consider basic lessons drawn from these innovative approaches to measurement.

A Review of Research on Crime Displacement Theory

Reppetto (1976) published crime displacement theory in Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency and put forward his theoretical underpinnings for the future analysis of crime displacement phenomenon and outlined five types of crime displacement such as: 1. Temporal - Committing the intended crime at a different time; 2. Tactical - Committing the intended crime in a different way; 3. Target - Committing the intended crime type on a different target; 4. Spatial - Committing the intended crime type to the same target in a different place; 5. Functional - Committing a different type of crime. Research on crime displacement began to be carried out in a more systematic manner during the 1990s. There was a significant step forward when research in 1990 and 1993 specifically studied displacement and found it to be much less of problem than had generally been supposed. Crime displacement occurred where it was most likely to be similar targets or to similar and adjacent areas. Although the findings were greatly positive, there was and not surprisingly, variation between different crimes. Research has consistently found that crime displacement is the exception rather than the rule and that diffusion of benefits is just as likely and sometimes more likely to occur. Research also shows that crime displacement is unlikely in the aftermath of broader community development programs. In cases where some displacement occurs it tends to be less than the gains achieved by the response and found that crime displacement and diffusion are equally likely to occur. The theory of crime displacement is related to rational choice theory and there are three assumptions regarding the potential perpetrator and the target. The theory of crime displacement does not explain the reason of perpetrators committing a certain crime or why some crimes are more attractive to them than others. Crime displacement can occur in different ways or methods. An often-stated opinion about crime displacement is the theory, its practical usages, that it can induce a sense of disbelief towards crime prevention initiatives.

Social and Emotional Learning in Schools: From Programs to Strategies and commentaries

Social and Emotional Learning in Schools: From Programs to Strategies and commentaries

Fighting for Her Honor

Since the 1980s, delinquency researchers and urban ethnographers have increasingly placed girls’ violence in the center of their inquiries. Within recent scholarship, there are several looming questions such as how much of girls’ violence is shaped by the same forces motivating violent boys and how much is shaped by concerns unique to girls. This study draws on data from a 6-year qualitative study of violence among Pacific Islander high school students in Hawaii. We explore how girls’ violence attends to gender as well as to the rampant economic, racial, ethnic, and political dislocations that threatened family survival in adolescents’ communities.