Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency 50(2)

Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, May 2013: Volume 50, Issue 2

The Variable Impacts of Public Housing Community Proximity on Nearby Street Robberies
Cory P. Haberman, Elizabeth R. Groff, and Ralph B. Taylor

Objectives: Use crime pattern theory to investigate the proximity effects of public housing communities on robbery crime while taking into account the presence of nearby nonresidential facilities. Method: The study uses data describing 41 Philadelphia public housing communities and their surrounds. Surrounds are defined using two increments of street block-sized buffers. Multilevel models (buffer areas nested around public housing communities) allowing the proximity effect to vary across communities and predicting its shape with public housing level predictors are estimated. Results: The multilevel models show that the shape of proximity effects varies across public housing communities and depends on community size, even after factoring in presence of nonresidential facilities. Spatially, multiple public housing communities close to one another have more intense robbery patterns. Conclusions: Labeling all public housing communities as equally criminogenic robbery exporters is unwarranted. In fact, some communities have lower robbery counts than the areas surrounding them. Consequently, effectively addressing robbery in and around public housing communities will require careful consideration of where the problem is located. Locating public housing communities more than two blocks apart may reduce robbery.

Concentrated Disadvantage and the Incarceration of Youth: Examining How Context Affects Juvenile Justice
Nancy Rodriguez

Objectives: Attribution theory is used to frame a study on concentrated disadvantage and youth correctional confinement. Method: Population of delinquent referrals and a random sample of 50 youth case file records from a large urban juvenile court in the southwest are analyzed. Results: Black and Latino/Latina youth were more likely than their White counterparts to be institutionalized. Youth from areas with high levels of concentrated disadvantage were more likely to be confined than youth from more affluent areas. Court officials' perceptions of disadvantage play an important role when deciding whether youth should remain in the community or be incarcerated. Conclusions: Race, ethnicity, and concentrated disadvantage play a significant role in juvenile justice. Court officials perceive areas of disadvantage as high risk and dangerous for youth. Unfortunately, correctional confinement appears to be one way to address youths' vulnerable state. This study sheds light on the importance of economic landscapes in the administration of justice and the delivery of services.

Online Routines and Identity Theft Victimization: Further Expanding Routine Activity Theory beyond Direct-Contact Offenses
Bradford W. Reyns

Objectives: The purpose of the current study was to extend recent work aimed at applying routine activity theory to crimes in which the victim and offender never come into physical proximity. To that end, relationships between individuals' online routines and identity theft victimization were examined. Method: Data from a subsample of 5,985 respondents from the 2008 to 2009 British Crime Survey were analyzed. Utilizing binary logistic regression, the relationships between individuals' online routine activities (e.g., banking, shopping, downloading), individual characteristics (e.g., gender, age, employment), and perceived risk of victimization on identity theft victimization were assessed. Results: The results suggest that individuals who use the Internet for banking and/or e-mailing/instant messaging are about 50 percent more likely to be victims of identity theft than others. Similarly, online shopping and downloading behaviors increased victimization risk by about 30 percent. Males, older persons, and those with higher incomes were also more likely to experience victimization, as were those who perceived themselves to be at greater risk of victimization. Conclusions: Although the routine activity approach was originally written to account for direct-contact offenses, it appears that the perspective also has utility in explaining crimes at a distance. Further research should continue to explore the online and offline routines that increase individuals' risks of identity theft victimization.

Continuity and Change in Gang Membership and Gang Embeddedness
David C. Pyrooz, Gary Sweeten, and Alex R. Piquero

Objectives. Drawing from social network and life-course frameworks, the authors extend Hagan’s concept of criminal embeddedness to embeddedness within gangs. This study explores the relationship between embeddedness in a gang, a type of deviant network, and desistance from gang membership. Method. Data were gathered over a five-year period from 226 adjudicated youth reporting gang membership at the baseline interview. An item response theory model is used to construct gang embeddedness. The authors estimate a logistic hierarchical linear model to identify whether baseline levels of gang embeddedness alter the longitudinal contours of gang membership. Results. Gang embeddedness is associated with slowing the rate of desistance from gang membership over the full five-year study period. Gang members with low levels of embeddedness leave the gang quickly, crossing a 50 percent threshold in six months after the baseline interview, whereas high levels of embeddedness delays similar reductions until about two years. Males, Hispanics, and Blacks were associated with greater continuity in gang membership as well as those with low self-control. Conclusions. The concept of gang embeddedness broadens understanding of heterogeneity in deviant network immersion and is applicable to a wide range of criminal and delinquent networks. Gang embeddedness has implications for studying the parameters of gang careers and for a range of criminological outcomes.

The Effect of Interracial Contact on Whites' Perceptions of Victimization Risk and Black Criminality
Daniel P. Mears, Justin Pickett, Kristin Golden, Ted Chiricos, and Marc Gertz

Objectives. This article examines two questions. First, does interracial contact increase or decrease Whites' perceptions of Blacks' criminality? Second, does it affect Whites' perceived victimization risk, and, if so, is the effect mediated by the perceived criminality of Blacks as compared to the perceived criminality of different racial and ethnic groups? Methods. Multivariate regression analyses of data from a national public opinion poll that included measures of perceived victimization risk and the criminality of Whites and Latinos. Results. Interracial contact increases Whites' perceptions of the criminality of all racial and ethnic groups, not just Blacks. It also increases Whites' perceived risk of victimization, an effect that partially arises by increasing their perception of Whites and Latinos, and not just Blacks, as criminal. Conclusions. Although the identified effects may be due to Whites' stereotypes about Blacks, they are equally consistent with the notion that interracial contact may educate Whites about crime. Unfortunately, the present study could not investigate this possibility. Future research ideally will address this limitation, use additional measures of contact, and assess other explanations for any identified effects.

The Conditional Impact of Official Labeling on Subsequent Delinquency: Considering the Attenuating Role of Family Attachment
Dylan B. Jackson and Carter Hay

Objectives: Recent tests of labeling theory reveal a criminogenic effect of official labels. Drawing from Braithwaite and Sherman, the current study examines how the effects of a criminal label on recidivism vary by the degree of warmth and attachment found in the family environment. Method: Using ordinary least squares regression and product-term analysis, the authors tested their hypothesis using data from the Children at Risk program, which contains a sample of high-risk youths. Findings: Family attachment, examined across several waves of data, significantly diminishes the harmful effects of a criminal label. Conclusions: Results suggest that warm, supportive parents can reduce the likelihood that their children will reoffend. Their findings also imply that the labeling perspective may need further specification regarding the conditions under which a labeling effect is most likely to occur. Implications for juvenile justice policy are also discussed.