Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency 50(4)

Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, November 2013: Volume 50, Issue 4 

The Causal Impact of Exposure to Deviant Peers: An Experimental Investigation
Ray Paternoster, Jean Marie McGloin, Holly Nguyen, and Kyle J. Thomas

Objectives: This study addresses the enduring question about whether exposure to deviant peers causes individuals to engage in deviance. Ample literature comments on this point, but methodological limitations prevent strong conclusions about causality. Method: The authors conducted a laboratory-based experiment under the guise of a memory/recall study for which participants could earn up to $20. All 91 participants had the opportunity to cheat on a computer-based word recall task by clicking on up to four links that provided access to the words in order to illegitimately earn more money for their performance. In the treatment condition (n = 47), subjects were exposed to a confederate who indicated an intention to cheat, justified this behavior, and cheated on the task. Results: Whereas none of the participants in the control condition cheated on this task, 38 percent of the participants in the treatment condition did. This effect endures when controlling for various attributes of participants in regression models. Supplemental analyses underscore the notion that clicking on the links reflected cheating rather than curiosity. Conclusions: This experiment provides evidence that exposure to a deviant peer can cause individuals to engage in deviance. Future experimental work should focus on determining the precise mechanism/mechanisms responsible.

Spatial, Temporal and Spatio-Temporal Patterns of Maritime Piracy
Elio Marchione and Shane D. Johnson

Objectives: To examine patterns in the timing and location of incidents of maritime piracy to see whether, like many urban crimes, attacks cluster in space and time. Methods: Data for all incidents of maritime piracy worldwide recorded by the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency are analyzed using time-series models and methods originally developed to detect disease contagion. Results: At the macro level, analyses suggest that incidents of pirate attacks are concentrated in five subregions of the earth’s oceans and that the time series for these different subregions differ. At the micro level, analyses suggest that for the last 16 years (or more), pirate attacks appear to cluster in space and time suggesting that patterns are not static but are also not random. Conclusions: Much like other types of crime, pirate attacks cluster in space, and following an attack at one location the risk of others at the same location or nearby is temporarily elevated. The identification of such regularities has implications for the understanding of maritime piracy and for predicting the future locations of attacks.

Estimating a Dose–Response Relationship Between Time Served in Prison and Recidivism
Benjamin Meade, Benjamin Steiner, Matthew Makarios, and Lawrence Travis

Objectives: Estimate the dose–response relationship between time served in prison and offenders’ odds of recidivism. Methods: Using a large, representative sample of adult offenders released from prison under postrelease supervision in the state of Ohio, we examine the relationship between the length of time these offenders served in prison and their odds of recidivism during the year following their release. Multivariate logistic regression and analyses involving propensity score matching for ordered doses are both used to estimate the time served–recidivism relationship. Results: Analyses of these data revealed that offenders confined for longer periods of time had lower odds of recidivism, but these odds were only substantively lower for those offenders who served the longest periods of time in prison. Findings suggest the inverse effect of time served was not realized until after offenders have been confined for at least five years. Conclusion: Study findings indicate that the specific deterrent effect of prison sentences may be limited, and sentences less than five years may be reduced in order to save costs without a substantial threat to public safety.

Child Abuse and Neglect, Developmental Role Attainment, and Adult Arrests
Maureen A. Allwood and Cathy Spatz Widom

This study examines whether developmental role attainment in three areas (high school graduation, employment, and marriage) mediates the relationship between childhood abuse and neglect and adult arrest. Children with documented cases of physical and sexual abuse and neglect (before age 11) and a comparison group of nonabused or neglected children were matched on age, sex, race, and approximate socioeconomic status (N = 1,169) and followed-up and interviewed at approximate age 29. Arrest records were collected from law enforcement agencies. Childhood abuse and neglect predicted decreased likelihood of graduating from high school, current employment, and current marriage and greater likelihood of juvenile and adult arrest. Each of these developmental roles partially mediated the relationship between childhood abuse and neglect and adult arrest. The importance of these three developmental milestones and implications of the results for intervening with abused and neglected youth are discussed.

A Life-course Perspective on Adolescents’ Attitudes to Police: DARE, Delinquency, and Residential Segregation
Amie M. Schuck

Objectives: Describe the developmental trajectory of perceptions of the police by youth as they transition from adolescence to young adulthood. Method: A longitudinal experiment to evaluate the impact of the D.A.R.E. program (N = 1,773). Latent variable growth modeling was used. Results: A dramatic decline in the favorable attitudes of youth toward the police begins in about seventh grade. More negative perceptions of police are associated with minority racial status, negative experiences with officers, involvement in the delinquent subculture, and greater expressions of skewed legal norms. There is a long-term positive effect of D.A.R.E. on attitudes toward the police, particularly for African American youth. Conclusion: The study highlights the importance of theorizing about perceptions of the police from a life course perspective. Findings raise new policy questions about the long-term impact of school-based programs, such as D.A.R.E., and the role of multiple reference groups in the formation of minorities’ attitudes. More research is needed to gain a better understanding of the cognitive and experiential processes involved in attitude formation.

Changes in Criminal Offending around the Time of Marriage
Torkild Hovde Lyngstad and Torbjørn Skardhamar

Objectives: The authors investigate whether the argument from life-course criminology that marriage leads to reduction in crime or whether the mechanisms leading to lower crime rates might take effect in a period of courtship before the transition to marriage. Method: Using data from population-wide, longitudinal Norwegian administrative registers, the authors estimate within-individual offending propensities before and after marriage for all men marrying in Norway 1997–2001. This approach allows for studying how offending develops over a decade around the time of marriage, for those men who actually marry. Results: The propensity to offend declines sharply prior to marriage. After marriage, there is a small increase in offending. This holds both for all offenses and when the analysis is restricted to felony offenses. Conclusions: The analysis provides no evidence for an effect of marriage on offending. Rather, the results suggest that the lower offending rates of marrieds develop over the years prior to marriage rather than as a consequence of the marriage.

A Stab in the Dark?: A Research Note on Temporal Patterns of Street Robbery
Lisa Tompson and Kate Bowers

Objectives: Test the influence of darkness in the street robbery crime event alongside temperature. Methods: Negative binomial regression models tested darkness and temperature as predictors of street robbery. Units of analysis were four 6-hr time intervals in two U.K. study areas that have different levels of darkness and variations of temperature throughout the year. Results: Darkness is a key factor related to robbery events in both study areas. Traversing from full daylight to full darkness increased the predicted volume of robbery by a multiple of 2.6 in London and 1.2 in Glasgow. Temperature was significant only in the London study area. Interaction terms did not enhance the predictive power of the models. Conclusion: Darkness is an important driving factor in seasonal variation of street robbery. A further implication of the research is that time of the day patterns are crucial to understanding seasonal trends in crime data.

The ANNALS of the AAPSS 650

The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, November 2013: Volume 650

Evaluating the Effects of the Great Recession
Sheldon Danziger

Federal Government Activism and the Political Response

The Macroeconomic Policy Paradox: Failing by Succeeding
Alan S. Blinder

Political Effects of the Great Recession
Larry M. Bartels

Effects on Employment, Wealth, Retirement Security, and the Social Safety Net

Failing the Test? The Flexible U.S. Job Market in the Great Recession
Richard B. Freeman

Wealth Disparities Before and After the Great Recession
Fabian T. Pfeffer, Sheldon Danziger, and Robert F. Schoeni

The Effects of the Great Recession on the Retirement Security of Older Workers
Alicia H. Munnell and Matthew S. Rutledge

The Great Recession and the Social Safety Net
Robert A. Moffitt

Effects on Education, Health, Family, and Children

Expanding Enrollments and Contracting State Budgets: The Effect of the Great Recession on Higher Education
Andrew Barr and Sarah E. Turner

The Great Recession and Health: People, Populations, and Disparities
Sarah A. Burgard, Jennifer A. Ailshire, and Lucie Kalousova

The Effects of the Great Recession on Family Structure and Fertility
Andrew Cherlin, Erin Cumberworth, S. Philip Morgan, and Christopher Wimer

Effects of the Great Recession on Child Development
Ariel Kalil

State and Local Variations in Responses to the Recession

State Fiscal Policy during the Great Recession: Budgetary Impacts and Policy Responses
Andrea Louise Campbell and Michael W. Sances

The Effects of Local Economic Conditions on Confidence in Key Institutions and Interpersonal Trust after the Great Recession
Lindsay A. Owens and Karen S. Cook

Critical Criminology 21(3)

Critical Criminology, September 2013: Volume 21, Issue 3

Editor’s Introduction to the Special Issue: “Crucial Critical Criminology”
David Kauzlarich

Cultural Criminology and the Politics of Meaning
Jeff Ferrell

Cultural criminology focuses on situational, subcultural, and mediated constructions of meaning around issues of crime and crime control. In this sense cultural criminology is designed for critical engagement with the politics of meaning, and for critical intervention into those politics. Yet the broader enterprise of critical criminology engages with the politics of meaning as well; in confronting the power relations of justice and injustice, critical criminologists of all sorts investigate the social and cultural processes by which situations are defined, groups are categorized, and human consequences are understood. The divergence between cultural criminology and other critical criminologies, then, may be defined less by meaning than by the degree of methodological militancy with which meaning is pursued. In any case, this shared concern with the politics of meaning suggests a number of innovations and interventions that cultural criminologists and other critical criminologists might explore.

Confronting Progressive Retreatism and Minimalism: The Role of a New Left Realist Approach
Walter S. DeKeseredy & Martin D. Schwartz

Left realists continue to offer progressive ways of studying and solving various types of crime in the streets, in the “suites,” and in intimate relationships. This article briefly describes the central themes, assumptions, and concepts of left realism and charts new directions in research, theory, and policy. Special attention is devoted to using new electronic technologies and to responding to the rabid corporatization of institutions of higher learning.

Transformative Feminist Criminology: A Critical Re-thinking of a Discipline
Meda Chesney-Lind & Merry Morash

This essay makes the case for a transformative critical feminist criminology, one that explicitly theorizes gender, one that requires a commitment to social justice, and one that must increasingly be global in scope. Key to this re-thinking of a mature field is the need to expand beyond traditional positivist notions of “science,” to embrace core elements of a feminist approach to methodology, notably the epistemological insights gleaned from a new way of thinking about research, methods, and the relationship between the knower and the known. Other key features of contemporary feminist criminology include an explicit commitment to intersectionality, an understanding of the unique positionality of women in the male dominated fields of policing and corrections, a focus on masculinity and the gender gap in serious crime, a critical assessment of corporate media and the demonization of girls and women of color, and a recognition of the importance of girls’ studies as well as women’s studies to the development of a global, critical feminist criminology.

Intersectional Criminology: Interrogating Identity and Power in Criminological Research and Theory
Hillary Potter

Intersectional criminology is a theoretical approach that necessitates a critical reflection on the impact of interconnected identities and statuses of individuals and groups in relation to their experiences with crime, the social control of crime, and any crime-related issues. This approach is grounded in intersectionality, a concept developed from the tenets of women of color feminist theory and activism. To demonstrate how intersectionality is useful in criminology, this article reviews a sampling of feminist and critical research conducted on Black girls’ and women’s experiences with crime, victimization, and criminal legal system processes. This research demonstrates the interlaced social impacts of race, gender, femininity/masculinity ideals, sexuality, and socioeconomic class. This article also provides a basis for widely deploying an intersectional approach throughout the field of criminology across all social identities and statuses.

Peacemaking Criminology
Hal Pepinsky

This is an overview of the work of criminologists that informs how people build trust, safe and social security in the face of violent social differences. The article begins with a story of how the term “peacemaking” came to “criminology.” A theory of peacemaking emerging from this beginning is then stated, including a review of criminological literature that informs the theory. The theory is grounded in a paradigmatic departure from criminology’s tradition—the study of crime and criminality—to proposing instead of studying what replaces human separation with cooperation and mutual trust. This paradigm implies that stories of dispute handling are its most authoritative data, especially stories people tell about their own relations. It also implies new ways of evaluating the fruits of adopting a peacemaking paradigm for learning and living.

Postmodernism and Thinking Quantum Holographically
Dragan Milovanovic

Postmodern analysis has suggested new directions in critical criminology. We first situate the development of postmodern analysis, particularly chaos, catastrophe, Lacanian psychoanalytic, and edgework theory. One more recent derivative of a postmodern approach, and as of yet undeveloped, is quantum holography. This article develops a process-informational paradigm rooted in quantum holography. We argue that the noosphere we operate within needs to be challenged. We argue, moreover, criminology lacks a subject, a viable agent. We offer Schema QD, an inter- and intra- subjective agent that is neither a transcendental nor passive subject. We provide short examples of applications in this area meant as suggestive not exhaustive, and conclude with future directions.

Green Criminology and Crimes of the Economy: Theory, Research and Praxis
Vincenzo Ruggiero & Nigel South

This paper describes several key developments and dimensions in the field of ‘green criminology’ and discusses some of the relevant debates and controversies arising. It then outlines overlaps and connections with other areas of work within critical criminology. The central focus of the paper is on crimes of the economy as they affect the environment and a substantive, illustrative case study is provided on environmental crimes and harms associated with the oil industry. The paper concludes with some critical observations on where directions in theory, policy and practice may need to turn in a post-growth world.

The New School of Convict Criminology Thrives and Matures
Stephen C. Richards

This article discusses the past, present, and future of the New School of Convict Criminology (CC). A short history, including a discussion of literature, major works, and research studies is provided as is a review of Convict Criminology Group origination, membership, and activities. A first attempt at formal Convict Criminology Theory construction is presented alongside four research hypotheses. University prejudice and exclusion, as well as criminal justice hate words, are also addressed. The conclusion explores the future of CC and requests support for the movement.

Journal of Marriage and Family 75(5)

Journal of Marriage and Family, October 2013: Volume 75, Issue 5

SPECIAL SECTION–Stepfamilies in Later Life

Stepfamilies in Later Life
Suzan van der Pas, Theo G. van Tilburg and Merril Silverstein

Who Is in the Stepfamily? Change in Stepparents' Family Boundaries Between 1992 and 2009
Bianca Suanet, Suzan van der Pas and Theo G. van Tilburg

Complex Families and Late-Life Outcomes Among Elderly Persons: Disability, Institutionalization, and Longevity
Liliana E. Pezzin, Robert A. Pollak and Barbara S. Schone

Parents' Partnership Decision Making After Divorce or Widowhood: The Role of (Step)Children
Jenny de Jong Gierveld and Eva-Maria Merz

Family Structure and Parent–Child Contact: A Comparison of Native and Migrant Families
Anja Steinbach

What Narrows the Stepgap? Closeness Between Parents and Adult (Step)Children in Germany
Oliver Arránz Becker, Veronika Salzburger, Nadia Lois and Bernhard Nauck

Dementia Caregiving in the Context of Late-Life Remarriage: Support Networks, Relationship Quality, and Well-being
Carey Wexler Sherman, Noah J. Webster and Toni C. Antonucci

Coresidence and Geographic Proximity of Mothers and Adult Children in Stepfamilies
Judith A. Seltzer, Jenjira J. Yahirun and Suzanne M. Bianchi

Adult Children's Relationships With Married Parents, Divorced Parents, and Stepparents: Biology, Marriage, or Residence?
Matthijs Kalmijn

Brief Reports

Dating Relationships in Older Adulthood: A National Portrait
Susan L. Brown and Sayaka K. Shinohara

Does Child-Care Quality Mediate Associations Between Type of Care and Development?
Kristin S. Abner, Rachel A. Gordon, Robert Kaestner and Sanders Korenman

Generosity and the Maintenance of Marital Quality
Jeffrey Dew and W. Bradford Wilcox

Of General Interest

Continuity and Change in Mothers' Favoritism Toward Offspring in Adulthood
J. Jill Suitor, Megan Gilligan and Karl Pillemer

Cyclical Cohabitation Among Unmarried Parents in Fragile Families
Lenna Nepomnyaschy and Julien Teitler

Family Instability and the Transition to Adulthood
Paula Fomby and Stacey J. Bosick

Paternal Incarceration and Father–Child Contact in Fragile Families
Amanda Geller

Daily Spillover of Low-Income Mothers' Perceived Workload to Mood and Mother–Child Interactions
Anna Gassman-Pines

Journal of Criminal Justice 41(5)

Journal of Criminal Justice, September 2013: Volume 41, Issue 5

Genetics and Antisocial Behaviors 

Genetic and environmental influences on antisocial behavior  
Catherine Tuvblad, Kevin M. Beaver

The genetic and environmental overlap between aggressive and non-aggressive antisocial behavior in children and adolescents using the self-report delinquency interview (SR-DI)
Pan Wang, Sharon Niv, Catherine Tuvblad, Adrian Raine, Laura A. Baker

Purpose: This study investigated genetic and environmental commonalities and differences between aggressive and non-aggressive antisocial behavior (ASB) in male and female child and adolescent twins, based on a newly developed self-report questionnaire with good reliability and external validity -- the Self-Report Delinquency Interview (SR-DI). Methods: Subjects were 780 pairs of twins assessed through laboratory interviews at three time points in a longitudinal study, during which the twins were: (1) ages 9-10 years; (2) age 11-13 years, and (3) age 16-18 years. Results: Sex differences were repeatedly observed for mean levels of ASB. In addition, diverse change patterns of genetic and environmental emerged, as a function of sex and form of ASB, during the development from childhood to adolescence. Although there was some overlap in etiologies of aggressive and non-aggressive ASB, predominantly in shared environmental factors, their genetic overlap was moderate and the non-shared environmental overlap was low. Conclusions: Taken together, these results reinforced the importance of differentiating forms of ASB and further investigating sex differences in future research. These results should be considered in future comparisons between youth self-report and parental or teacher report of child and adolescent behavior, and may help elucidate commonalities and differences among informants.

Aggression and rule-breaking: Heritability and stability of antisocial behavior problems in childhood and adolescence
Sharon Niv, Catherine Tuvblad, Adrian Raine, Laura A. Baker

Purpose: This twin study examined the structure of genetic and environmental influences on aggression and rule-breaking in order to examine change and stability across the span of childhood to mid-adolescence. Methods: Behavioral assessments were conducted at two time points: age 9–10 years and 14–15 years. Using behavioral genetics biometric modeling, the longitudinal structure of influences was investigated. Results: Aggression and rule-breaking were found to be influenced by a latent common factor of antisocial behavior (ASB) within each wave of data collection. The variance in the childhood-age common factor of ASB was influenced by 41% genetics, 40% shared environment and 19% nonshared environment. In adolescence, 41% of variance in the common factor were novel and entirely genetic, while the remainder of variance was stable across time. Additionally, both aggression and rule-breaking within each wave were found to have unique influences not common across subscales or across waves, highlighting specificity of genetic and environmental effects on different problem behaviors at both ages. Conclusions: This research sheds light on the commonality of influences on different forms of antisocial behavior. Future research into interventions for antisocial behavior problems in youth could focus on adolescence-specific environmental influences.

Biological protective factors for antisocial and criminal behavior
Jill Portnoy, Frances R. Chen, Adrian Raine

Purpose: Although risk factors are typically the focus of criminological research, increasingly researchers are interested in identifying protective factors that reduce the probability of antisocial behavior, either in the presence or absence of risk factors. Biosocial researchers are in an opportune position to research factors that protect against the development of antisocial behavior in high-risk individuals, given biosocial criminology’s focus on the interaction between biological and social factors. The purpose of this article is to review neuropsychological and psychophysiology research into protective factors. Results: Of the neuropsychological factors, high IQ has the best-replicated protective effects, though executive functioning is also a promising candidate as a protective factor. High resting heart rate, as well as enhanced autonomic fear conditioning and attentional processing may also have protective effects. Conclusions: Though research into biological protective factors is currently limited, there is promising evidence that biological factors could help us to better understand why some individuals do not become antisocial or criminal in the presence of high social risk. Neuropsychological and psychophysiological measures are relatively easier and less costly to operationalize than other biological measures, making them promising candidates for criminological researchers who would like to incorporate biological measures into their research designs.

Genetic and environmental contributions to stability and change in levels of self-control
Kevin M. Beaver, Eric J. Connolly, Joseph A. Schwartz, Mohammed Said Al-Ghamdi, Ahmed Nezar Kobeisy

Purpose: There has been an emerging body of research estimating the stability in levels of self-control across different sections of the life course. At the same time, some of this research has attempted to examine the factors that account for both stability and change in levels of self-control. Missing from much of this research is a concerted focus on the genetic and environmental architecture of stability and change in self-control. Methods: The current study was designed to address this issue by analyzing a sample of kinship pairs drawn from the Child and Young Adult Supplement of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (CNLSY). Results: Analyses of these data revealed that genetic factors accounted for between 74 and 92 percent of the stability in self-control and between 78 and 89 percent of the change in self-control. Shared and nonshared environmental factors explained the rest of the stability and change in levels of self-control. Conclusions: A combination of genetic and environmental influences is responsible for the stability and change in levels of self-control over time.

Evidence for a heritable brain basis to deviance-promoting deficits in self-control
James R. Yancey, Noah C. Venables, Brian M. Hicks, Christopher J. Patrick

Purpose: Classic criminological theories emphasize the role of impaired self-control in behavioral deviancy. Reduced amplitude of the P300 brain response is reliably observed in individuals with antisocial and substance-related problems, suggesting it may serve as a neurophysiological indicator of deficiencies in self-control that confer liability to deviancy. Methods: The current study evaluated the role of self-control capacity—operationalized by scores on a scale measure of trait disinhibition—in mediating the relationship between P300 brain response and behavioral deviancy in a sample of adult twins (N = 419) assessed for symptoms of antisocial/addictive disorders and P300 brain response. Results: As predicted, greater disorder symptoms and higher trait disinhibition scores each predicted smaller P300 amplitude, and trait disinhibition mediated observed relations between antisocial/addictive disorders and P300 response. Further, twin modeling analyses revealed that trait disinhibition scores and disorder symptoms reflected a common genetic liability, and this genetic liability largely accounted for the observed phenotypic relationship between antisocial-addictive problems and P300 brain response. Conclusions: These results provide further evidence that heritable weaknesses in self-control capacity confer liability to antisocial/addictive outcomes and that P300 brain response indexes this dispositional liability. 

Teenage childbirth and young adult criminal convictions: A quasi-experimental study of criminal outcomes for teenage mothers
Claire A. Coyne, Nathalie M.G. Fontaine, Niklas Långström, Paul Lichtenstein, Brian M. D’Onofrio

Purpose: Teenage childbirth is associated with poor psychosocial outcomes for teen mothers. One example is that teen mothers have higher rates of antisocial behavior. The extant research has not been able to determine if teenage motherhood is independently associated with criminal behavior, or if the association is due to selection factors associated with both teenage childbirth and criminal behavior. Methods: We used longitudinal data from Swedish national registers and sibling-comparisons (both full- and half-siblings) to identify the extent to which there is an independent association between teenage childbirth and mothers’ likelihood of criminal conviction between ages 20-30, or if the association is confounded by familial (including genetic or environmental) factors that make sisters similar. Results: Women who began childbearing as teenagers were more likely to be convicted of a crime in young adulthood compared to women who delayed childbearing. When sisters were compared, the association between teenage childbirth and criminal convictions disappeared. Multivariate behavior genetic analyses suggest genetic and shared environmental account for the association. Conclusions: The statistical association between teenage childbirth and early adulthood criminal convictions is confounded by genetic and shared environmental factors that influence both the likelihood of teenage childbirth and risk of early adulthood criminal conviction.

Do peer group norms moderate the expression of genetic risk for aggression?
Mara Brendgen, Alain Girard, Frank Vitaro, Ginette Dionne, Michel Boivin

Purpose: Using a genetically informed design based on 192 Monozygotic and Dizygotic twin pairs assessed in kindergarten, this study examined whether the expression of genetic risk for physical aggression or for relational aggression varies depending on the peer group’s injunctive behaviour norms. Methods: Physical aggression and relational aggression, as well as injunctive peer group norms in regard to these behaviours, were measured via peer nominations in the twins’ kindergarten classes. Results: Peer groups varied considerably in terms of the level of acceptability of both physical and relational aggression. Bivariate Cholesky modeling revealed a significant gene-environment interaction, indicating that a strong genetic disposition for physical aggression was much more likely to be expressed when peer group injunctive norms were favourable to such behaviour. In contrast, genetic factors essentially played no role in explaining inter-individual differences when peer group norms discouraged physical aggression. Relational aggression was generally less explained by genetic influences and more by environmental influences regardless of peer group norms, but environmental influences became even more important when peer group norms favoured such behaviour. Conclusions: These findings speak to the importance of the peer group in shaping aggression already in young children by either condoning or penalizing such behaviour.

Psychopathic Personality and Negative Parent-to-Child Affect: A Longitudinal Cross-lag Twin Study
Catherine Tuvblad, Serena Bezdjian, Adrian Raine, Laura A. Baker

Purpose: Previous studies that have explored the relationship between parenting style and children’s antisocial behavior have generally found significant bidirectional effects, whereby parenting behaviors influence their child’s antisocial outcomes, but a child’s behaviors also lead to changes in parenting style. Methods: The present study investigated the genetic and environmental underpinnings of the longitudinal relationship between negative parent-to-child affect and psychopathic personality in a sample of 1,562 twins. Using a biometrical cross-lag analysis, bidirectional effects were investigated across two waves of assessment when the twins were ages 9-10 and 14-15, utilizing both caregiver and youth self-reports. Results: Results demonstrated that negative parental affect observed at ages 9-10 influenced the child’s later psychopathic personality at ages 14-15, based on both caregiver and youth self-reports. For these ‘parent-driven effects’, both genetic and non-shared environmental factors were important in the development of later psychopathic personality during adolescence. There were additional ‘child-driven effects’ such that children’s psychopathic personality at ages 9-10 influenced negative parent-to-child affect at ages 14-15, but only within caregiver reports. Conclusions: Thus, children’s genetically influenced psychopathic personality seemed to evoke later parental negativity at ages 14-15, highlighting the importance of investigating bidirectional effects in parent-child relationships to understand the development of these traits.

Psychopathic personality and utilitarian moral judgment in college students
Yu Gao, Simone Tang

Purpose: Although psychopathy is characterized by amoral behavior, literature on the association between psychopathy and moral judgment pattern is mixed. Recent evidence suggests that this may be due to the moderation effect of anxiety (Koenigs, Kruepke, Zeier, & Newman, 2011). The current study aims to examine the psychopathy-utilitarian judgment association in college students. Method: In this study, a group of 302 college students completed a moral judgment test involving hypothetical dilemmas. Their psychopathic traits were assessed by the Psychopathic Personality Inventory – Short Form (PPI-SF) (Lilienfeld & Andrews, 1996). Results: Individuals with higher psychopathic traits were more likely to make utilitarian responses to moral dilemmas. Furthermore, the association between utilitarian responses and psychopathy was more salient for the behavioral factor of psychopathy (PPI-II), and this association was mediated by self-reported aggression. However, the moderating effect of anxiety was not found. Conclusions: These results build upon work on utilitarian moral judgment in psychopathic individuals in a non-incarcerated, non-institutionalized sample, and have important implications for the behavioral correction system.

Genetic risk factors correlate with county-level violent crime rates and collective disadvantage
J.C. Barnes, Brian B. Boutwell, Kevin M. Beaver

Purpose: Social scientists have a rich tradition of uncovering the neighborhood, structural, and ecological correlates of human behavior. Results from this body of evidence have revealed that living in disadvantaged communities portends myriad negative outcomes, including antisocial behaviors. Though it has long been argued that associations between neighborhood factors and individual-level outcomes may, at least partially, reflect genetic selection, a paucity of research has empirically investigated this possibility. Methods: The current study examined whether known genetic risk factors for antisocial behavior were predictive of exposure to disadvantage and violent crime measured at the county level. Drawing on genotypic data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, a dopamine risk scale was created based on respondents’ genotypes for DAT1, DRD2, and DRD4. County-level disadvantage was measured via Census data and violent crime rates were measured via the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports. Results: Findings revealed that individuals with a greater number of dopamine risk alleles were more likely to live in a disadvantaged county and were more likely to live in a county with higher violent crime rates.

Stressful life events and adolescent drug use: Moderating influences of the MAOA gene
John M. Stogner, Chris L. Gibson

Purpose: Though stressful life events appear to impact the likelihood and frequency of substance use among adolescents, these effects are often varied and inconsistent. We suggest that the polymorphic MAOA gene may be partially responsible for variable susceptibility to environmental pressures and substance use. More specifically, we hypothesize that adolescents possessing low activity alleles for the MAOA genotype are more likely to respond to stressful life experiences by initiating substance use. Methods: The genetic subsample of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health was analyzed (2,574 adolescents) using logistic regression models for each gender. Respondents’ self-reports of eight key stressors were used to create a composite life stress scale which was allowed to interact with a variable that represented the number of low activity MAOA alleles. Results: For males, a significant interaction emerged between stressful life experiences and the MAOA gene for alcohol (p = .029) and marijuana (p = .039) initiation. For females, the interaction was not significant in each model. Conclusions: MAOA interacts with life stress to increase the likelihood of substance use initiation for males. Those with a low activity MAOA allele are more likely to initiate substance use than those with a high activity allele when exposed to stressful experiences.

Journal of Criminal Justice 41(4)

Journal of Criminal Justice, July 2013: Volume 41, Issue 4

The effectiveness of public defenders in four Florida counties
Marian R. Williams

Purpose: The present study utilizes data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics to examine the effectiveness of public defenders in Florida to assess whether the case outcomes of defendants with public defenders are similar to the case outcomes of defendants with retained attorneys, controlling for legally-relevant variables.Methods: The present study utilizes both logistic and OLS regression analysis to examine differences between attorneys for seven different case outcomes. Results: Results indicate that defendants with public defenders are more likely to be detained pretrial, more likely to be convicted, and less likely to have their cases dismissed. The results dispute previous research which found few, if any, differences between public defenders and retained counsel. Conclusion: Results suggest that, at least in the counties examined, defendants with public defenders suffer from a lack of quality counsel.

Does resting heart rate at age 18 distinguish general and violent offending up to age 50? Findings from the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development
Wesley G. Jennings, Alex R. Piquero, David P. Farrington

Purpose: There is a sizable literature documenting the relationship between resting heart rate and antisocial behavior in children and adolescents. Absent from the literature is the extent to which heart rate has long-term prediction into late middle adulthood and the extent to which such effects are specific to certain crime types, such as violence, or whether heart rate effects are more general.Methods: This study uses data from the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development, a longitudinal study of 411 South London males followed through age 50 in order to examine these two research questions. Results: Results suggest that lower heart rates are significantly associated with total conviction frequency and involvement in violence. This pattern of relationships is not altered by the inclusion of additional risk factors such as early childhood risk factors, adolescent involvement in smoking, body mass index, participation in team sports, binge drinking, or a measure of impulsivity. Conclusions: Heart rate was found to be a significant correlate of criminal offending. Study limitations and implications are discussed.

Unemployment, business cycles, crime, and the Canadian provinces
Martin A. Andresen

Purpose: Test the model using multiple measures of the state of the economy.Methods: A panel data set of the 10 Canadian provinces, 1981 – 2009, is analyzed using a hybrid modeling approach called a decomposition model. Rather than one economy-related model, four are included in the analysis: gross provincial product, gross provincial product per capita, unemployment rate, and low income. Results: All economy-related variables matter for property and violent crime, but the sign and magnitude of the estimated parameters vary based on context. Conclusions: The relationship between the economy and crime is complex. Only including one economy-related variable appears to result in omitted variable bias. As such, any evaluation of the relationship between the economy and crime must consider multiple measures of the economy.

Keeping promises: A systematic review and a new classification of gang control strategies
Jason Gravel, Martin Bouchard, Karine Descormiers, Jennifer S. Wong, Carlo Morselli

Purpose: We argue that inadequate frameworks to compare similar gang control strategies, and the scarcity of well-designed evaluations have hindered our ability to determine the effectiveness of existing programs. This article proposes a new typology of gang control strategies to use with logic models as tools to improve gang program evaluation.Methods: We conducted a systematic review of gang control strategy evaluation reports and created a typology from the studies identified. Studies were selected on the basis of methodological quality in order to reflect only rigorous evaluations with credible research findings. Results: Forty-five studies were selected and reviewed. Studies were classified in homogeneous categories based on the targeted population and the objective of the strategy. We infer logic models that consider the activities, outputs, and outcomes of each type of strategy. Conclusion: A better framework for the comparison of similar studies may allow meta-analyses to be conducted, thereby improving our knowledge of what works. Logic models can move the field forward by allowing researchers to understand why some programs work and others do not. The improvement, both in quality and quantity, of program evaluation in gang research is crucial in order to move beyond claims of promising approaches.

The influence of neuropsychological deficits in early childhood on low self-control and misconduct through early adolescence
Dylan B. Jackson, Kevin M. Beaver

Purpose: Gottfredson and Hirschi (1990) contend that low self-control is the result of parental management techniques. However, an emerging line of research has revealed that neuropsychological deficits influence the development of low self-control (Beaver et al., 2007 and Cauffman et al., 2005). Nevertheless, these studies have largely tested the effects of neuropsychological deficits on low self-control cross-sectionally or in the short term. This study addresses an important void in the literature by examining the influence of neuropsychological deficits in early childhood on levels of self-control and misconduct through early adolescence. Methods: Data come from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey, Kindergarten (ECLS-K), the largest nationally representative sample of U.S. children. Results: We found that deficits in neuropsychological functioning during kindergarten were consistently predictive of lower levels of self-control during the third, fifth, and eighth grade as well as higher levels of conduct problems during the eighth grade. These effects remained significant after accounting for demographic variables, features of the neighborhood, and a number of parenting variables. Conclusions: Neuropsychological deficits during early childhood play an important role in the development of low self-control through early adolescence and misconduct during early adolescence.

Social isolation and inmate behavior: A conceptual framework for theorizing prison visitation and guiding and assessing research
Joshua C. Cochran, Daniel P. Mears

Purpose: Scholarship suggests that prison visitation is important because it allows inmates access to social ties that, in turn, can offset social isolation and help inmates cope with the transition back into society upon release. Only a small number of empirical assessments of visitation exist, however, and existing studies have typically overlooked how the heterogeneity inherent in visitation may influence whether visitation is beneficial, harmful, or has no effect. The goal of this paper is to develop a conceptual framework for theorizing this heterogeneity and its impacts, evaluating visitation research, and guiding future research aimed at estimating visitation effects. Methods: The paper reviews theory and research on inmate visitation. In so doing, it systematically examines heterogeneity in visitation and the implications of this heterogeneity.Results: The paper identifies five dimensions—visitation timing, longitudinal patterns in visitation, visitor type, visitation experiences, and inmate characteristics—that can be used to characterize visitation events or patterns that, themselves, may have varied effects on in-prison outcomes and reentry outcomes. Conclusions: More nuanced theories of, and empirical research on, inmate visitation are needed both to understand better the implications of visitation, and inmate social ties more broadly, and to advance theory, research, and policy.

Genetic and environmental influences underlying the relationship between low self-control and substance use
Danielle Boisvert, Brian B. Boutwell, J.C. Barnes, Jamie Vaske

Purpose: The current study seeks to examine the relationship between low self-control and cigarette smoking, alcohol use, and marijuana use in adolescence and adulthood using behavioral genetic methodology. Methods: Using a subsample of twin pairs from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), the current study estimates the genetic and environmental overlap between low self-control and substance use (or problems associated with substance use) across four waves of data collection. Results: The overall pattern of results suggests that genetic factors explain a moderate proportion of the variance in low self-control and substance use in both adolescence and adulthood. Furthermore, bivariate genetic analyses reveal that the correlation between low self-control and substance use is due, for the most part, to common genetic and nonshared environmental factors. Conclusions: The current study adds to a growing body of biosocial research on self-control and its relationship to criminal and analogous behaviors. The implications of our findings for the general theory of crime are discussed.

Theory and Society 42(5)

Theory and Society, September 2013: Volume 42, Issue 5

Aesthetic revolt and the remaking of national identity in Québec, 1960–1969
Geneviève Zubrzycki

Based on archival and ethnographic data, this article analyzes the iconic-making, iconoclastic unmaking, and iconographic remaking of national identifications. The window into these processes is the career of Saint John the Baptist, patron saint of French Canadians and national icon from the mid-nineteenth century until 1969, when his statue was destroyed by protesters during the annual parade in his honor in Montréal. Relying on literatures on visuality and materiality, I analyze how the saint and his attending symbols were deployed in processions, parades, and protests. From this analysis, I develop the sociological concept of aesthetic revolt, a process whereby social actors rework iconic symbols, redefining national identity in the process. The article offers a theoretical articulation and an empirical demonstration of how the context, content, and the form of specific cultural objects and symbols—national icons—are intertwined in public performance to produce eventful change, and shows why and how the internal material logic and the social life of these icons shape the articulation of new national identities.

Genetically modified food in France: symbolic transformation and the policy paradigm shift
Kyoko Sato

The priorities of French policy regarding genetically modified (GM) food shifted in the late 1990s from aggressive promotion to strict regulation based on precaution and separation of GM food. This paradigmatic policy change coincided with a rapid shift in the dominant meanings of GM food in larger French public discourses. Using data from media coverage, organizational documents, and in-depth interviews, the study examines the relationship between policy developments and GM food’s symbolic transformation. I argue that the interpretive dimension interacted with and co-evolved incrementally with formal policy developments, and that it cannot be understood as epiphenomenal to political processes, or as preceding and propelling a policy change. I identify three mechanisms of symbolic transformation: (1) multiplication of meanings; (2) association with other salient issues; and (3) coupling with national identity (boundary work). Conversely, this symbolic transformation influenced the terms of political debates and viable strategies, influencing policy developments. The study also demonstrates how certain longstanding elements of French political culture shaped, and were changed or reproduced through, these processes.

For whom the bell tolls: state-society relations and the Sichuan earthquake mourning in China
Bin Xu

In the wake of the devastating Sichuan earthquake in 2008, the Chinese state, for the first time in the history of the People’s Republic, held a nationwide mourning rite for ordinary disaster victims. Why did this “mourning for the ordinary” emerge in the wake of the Sichuan earthquake but not previous massive disasters? Moreover, the Chinese state tried to demonstrate through the mourning that the state respected ordinary people’s lives and dignity. But this moral-political message contradicted the state’s normal repressive practice. The contradiction was salient when the state forbade the parents of child victims, who died of school collapse, to mourn their children at anniversaries of the earthquake. What can account for this contradiction? Drawing on the state-society relations perspective, I argue that the emergence of “mourning for the ordinary” can be explained by some important changes in structural state-society relations in China in the 2000s, such as the rapidly developing civil society with moral consciousness and the more adaptive authoritarian Chinese state with concern about its moral legitimacy. These changes were strengthened in the situational dynamics in 2008, which led to the state’s acceptance of a mourning proposal from the public sphere. The mourning did not occur in previous disasters because those structural factors were absent or weak and the situational dynamics were different. The state suppressed parents’ mourning and outside activists’ alternative mourning because the state’s concern with stability overrode its moral legitimation, particularly in the changing political context after the Beijing Olympics, and, meanwhile, the civil society was unable to resist the state’s repression. This study theorizes an important but understudied mourning genre, “mourning for the ordinary,” and introduces the state-society perspective into public ritual study.

Celebrity capital: redefining celebrity using field theory
Olivier Driessens

This article proposes to redefine celebrity as a kind of capital, thereby extending Bourdieu’s field theory. This redefinition is necessary, it is argued, because one of the main limitations shared by current definitions of celebrity is their lack of explanatory power of the convertibility of celebrity into other resources, such as economic or political capital. Celebrity capital, or broadly recognizability, is conceptualized as accumulated media visibility that results from recurrent media representations. In that sense, it is a substantial kind of capital and not a subset or special category of social or symbolic capital, the latter being defined as legitimate recognition by other agents in a social field. Rather than adding another definition of celebrity next to many others, the notion of celebrity capital proposed here should be seen as an attempt to integrate the existing approaches of celebrity into a single comprehensive conceptualization that can enable us to grasp this societal and cultural phenomenon better.

Social Forces 91(1)

Social Forces, September 2013: Volume 91, Issue 1

Gender and Work

Job Authority and Breast Cancer
Tetyana Pudrovska

Using the 1957–2011 data from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study, I integrate the gender relations theory, a life course perspective, and a biosocial stress perspective to explore the effect of women’s job authority in 1975 (at age 36) and 1993 (at age 54) on breast cancer incidence up to 2011. Findings indicate that women with the authority to hire, fire, and influence others’ pay had a significantly higher risk of a breast cancer diagnosis over the next thirty years compared to housewives and employed women with no job authority. Because job authority conferred the highest risk of breast cancer for women who also spent more hours dealing with people at work in 1975, I suggest that the assertion of job authority by women in the 1970 s involved stressful interpersonal experiences, such as social isolation and negative social interactions, that may have increased the risk of breast cancer via prolonged dysregulation of the glucocorticoid system and exposure of breast tissue to the adverse effects of chronically elevated cortisol. This study contributes to sociology by emphasizing gendered biosocial pathways through which women’s occupational experiences become embodied and drive forward physiological repercussions.

It’s Who You Work With: Effects of Workplace Shares of Nonstandard Employees and Women in Japan
Wei-hsin Yu

Previous research on workplace composition has not addressed how the share of nonstandard employees affects individual workers’ opportunities and well-being. Moreover, existing studies generally assume that the effect of a group’s numerical representation is mediated through the group’s relative power and status within establishments. This study asks whether workplace composition matters when the size of each social group has little impact on its relative status. Specifically, I examine the economic and psychological consequences of the proportions of nonstandard employees and women in Japanese workplaces, where both groups are typically secondary workers who lack power regardless of their relative size. The results indicate that working in establishments with modest proportions of nonstandard employees enhances individuals’ wages and likelihood of promotion, but working in those with higher proportions is detrimental. Conversely, the greater the share of nonstandard employees in a workplace, the more likely all workers are to suffer psychologically. Workplace gender composition is also linked to Japanese workers’ reported chances of promotion and life satisfaction, but it is relevant to fewer worker outcomes than employment-status composition. This analysis underscores the need to consider workplace demography, even if the power and status gaps between different social groups vary little with each group’s share within establishments. In addition, the findings suggest that the global trend of increasing nonstandard work arrangements has a more extensive impact on disparities among workers than prior research implies.

Gender, Bilingualism, and the Early Occupational Careers of Second-Generation Mexicans in the South
Rubén Hernández-León, Sarah Morando Lakhani

Following two decades of Mexican migration to the southern United States, the second generation is entering the labor market. We analyze the early occupational careers of fifty-eight second-generation young adults in Dalton, Georgia, a global carpet-manufacturing center. We find intergenerational occupational mobility, with children of Mexican immigrants deploying human-capital skills to access better jobs than their parents. However, the Mexican second generation faces opportunity ladders structured along gender lines, with women working in services and men laboring as bilingual supervisors and crew leaders in the carpet industry. While bilingual skills play a critical role in the employment paths that members of the second generation have started to chart, their use of bilingualism is also shaped by gender dynamics in the workplace.

Sexual Orientation and Gender Typicality of the Occupation in Young Adulthood
Koji Ueno, Teresa Roach, Abráham E. Peña-Talamantes

Previous research has shown that sexual minorities are more likely than heterosexuals to work in occupations that are atypical for their genders. This study seeks to extend the literature by examining the association between sexual orientation and gender typicality at the occupational-title level. The analysis focuses on the young adult population and uses data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). Consistent with previous research, people who report same-sex orientation and both-sex orientation tend to have more gender-atypical occupations than those who report other sex orientation. This difference is observed regardless of the sexuality measure used (attraction, dating relationships, sexual contact, or identity), although sexual minorities’ tendency to hold gender-atypical occupations is more pronounced for men than women and for people who report same-sex orientation than those who report both-sex orientation. Contrary to previous arguments and common belief, gender-typed behaviors in adolescence account very little for the difference. Instead, educational qualifications, marital status, and parental status help explain the difference. Much of the gap remains unexplained, highlighting the need to examine the role of sexuality discrimination in future research.

Stratification and Inequality

Variation in the Heritability of Educational Attainment: An International Meta-Analysis
Amelia R. Branigan, Kenneth J. McCallum, Jeremy Freese

To assess heterogeneity in the influence of genetic variation on educational attainment across environmental contexts, we present a meta-analysis of heritability estimates in fifteen samples and thirty-four subgroups differing by nationality, sex, and birth cohort. We find that heritability, shared environment, and unshared environment each explain a substantial percentage of the variance in attainment across all countries, with between-sample heterogeneity in all three variance components. Although we observe only meager differences in the total family effect by cohort or sex, we observe large cohort and sex differences in the composition of the family effect, consistent with a history of higher heritability of educational attainment for males and for individuals born in the latter half of the twentieth century. Heritability also varies significantly by nation, with the direction of variation specific by sample. We find a markedly larger impact of shared environment on attainment than has been found for other social outcomes, with the percent of variation in attainment attributable to shared environment exceeding the percent attributable to heritability in one-third of the studies in our sample. Our findings demonstrate the heritability of educational attainment to be environmentally contingent, affirm the widespread and enduring role of shared environment in determining ultimate socioeconomic attainment, and emphasize the importance of considering behavioral genetics techniques in models of social mobility.

Social Isolation of Disadvantage and Advantage: The Reproduction of Inequality in Urban Space
Lauren J. Krivo, Heather M. Washington, Ruth D. Peterson, Christopher R. Browning, Catherine A. Calder, Mei-Po Kwan

In this article, we extend research on neighborhood social isolation by (1) examining residents of disadvantaged and advantaged communities and (2) considering the character of neighborhoods where people conduct routine activities away from home. We contend that social isolation is experienced by residents of both highly disadvantaged and highly advantaged neighborhoods because the two groups spend time in largely nonoverlapping parts of the city. Individual and neighborhood race-ethnic dynamics exacerbate such social isolation. Data from the Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey show that social isolation is experienced by residents of all areas of the city, whether highly disadvantaged or advantaged. African Americans, Latinos and residents of areas with many Latinos suffer additional penalties in the social isolation of disadvantage in where they conduct routine activities.

Politics

Strong Walk and Cheap Talk: The Effect of the International Covenant of Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights on Policies and Practices
Wade M. Cole

Economic and social rights are understudied, and the core international treaty covering these rights—the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR)—has rarely been analyzed. This paper examines the effect of the ICESCR on (1) labor rights in law and practice and (2) the constitutionalization of socioeconomic rights. Membership in the ICESCR paradoxically improves de facto labor practices but not de jure labor rights laws. This effect represents an instance of “substance without ceremony,” and is consistent with recent empirical findings on the effects of global institutionalization. Treaty membership also prompts countries to enact constitutional provisions regarding socioeconomic rights, albeit in purely aspirational language. Countries that ratify the ICESCR remain hesitant to formulate such rights in enforceable terms.

Religion and Interest in Politics in Sub-Saharan Africa
Nicolette D. Manglos, Alexander A. Weinreb

Since the 1980s, sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has experienced a major wave of democratization, and concurrent expansions of independent Christianity and Reformist Islam. Scholarly narratives about the relationship between religion and politics have alternated between emphasizing religion’s inclusive and divisive political potential. Using data from thirteen countries, we evaluate competing hypotheses arising from these narratives. Focusing on the grassroots level, we analyze the effects of religious identity, active religious membership, and education on political interest. We find that active religious membership positively shapes political interest in almost all countries. Yet contrary to extant elite-focused literature, we find no tradition to be uniformly more “political.” Further, religious identity and religious minority status frequently condition the effects of education on political interest. The effects of religion on interest in politics are therefore context-dependent, exhibiting both inclusive and divisive potential.

Assessing the Significance of Cohort and Period Effects in Hierarchical Age-Period-Cohort Models: Applications to Verbal Test Scores and Voter Turnout in U.S. Presidential Elections
Steven M. Frenk, Yang Claire Yang, Kenneth C. Land

In recently developed hierarchical age-period-cohort (HAPC) models, inferential questions arise: How can one assess or judge the significance of estimates of individual cohort and period effects in such models? And how does one assess the overall statistical significance of the cohort and/or the period effects? Beyond statistical significance is the question of substantive significance. This paper addresses these questions. In the context of empirical applications of linear and generalized linear mixed-model specifications of HAPC models using data on verbal test scores and voter turnout in U.S. presidential elections, respectively, we describe a two-step approach and a set of guidelines for assessing statistical significance. The guidelines include assessments of patterns of effects and statistical tests both for the effects of individual cohorts and time periods as well as for entire sets of cohorts and periods. The empirical applications show strong evidence that trends in verbal test scores are primarily cohort driven, while voter turnout is primarily a period phenomenon.

Children

Competitive Threat, Intergroup Contact, or Both?: Immigration and the Dynamics of Front National Voting in France
Daniel J. Della Posta

Research on contemporary European politics has shown that immigrant population size is strongly associated with vote totals for anti-immigrant political parties. Competitive threat theories suggest that this association should be positive, whereas intergroup contact theories imply that it should be negative. A two-level analysis of vote totals for the French Front National (FRN) suggests that the direction of this association depends critically on the level of analysis. At the department (i.e., state or regional) level, large immigrant populations are associated with higher FRN vote totals. At the commune (i.e., town or city) level, however, large immigrant populations are instead associated with lower FRN vote totals. These findings challenge the conclusions of previous analyses of populist-right voting and provide further evidence that contact and threat dynamics often operate simultaneously, albeit at different levels.

The Implications of Family Size for Adolescents’ Education and Work in Brazil: Gender and Birth Order Differences
Letícia J. Marteleto, Laetícia R. de Souza

Numerous studies have found a negative association between family size and children’s outcomes, particularly education. The main theoretical frameworks that explain these negative associations posit that family resources mediate the relationship between family size and children’s outcomes, and children are resource receivers only. However, societies in which adolescents often work inside and outside the household and family resources are transferred unequally undermine these assumptions. We implement a twin birth instrumental variable approach and use the nationally representative 1997–2009 PNAD data to examine the impact of family size on school enrollment, labor force, and household work in Brazil. We propose a framework for understanding the implications of family size when adolescents both receive and provide resources in the family unit and these resources may be provided and/or received unequally depending on gender and birth order. While we find no evidence of gender or birth order differences in the effects of family size on education, the results indicate strong gender and birth order differences in adolescents’ contributions to their family units. We discuss the implications of our findings for the life course of adolescents.

Evicting Children
Matthew Desmond, Weihua An, Richelle Winkler, Thomas Ferriss

This study identifies children as a risk factor for eviction. An analysis of aggregate data shows that neighborhoods with a high percentage of children experience increased evictions. An analysis of individual data based on an original survey shows that among tenants who appear in eviction court, those with children are significantly more likely to receive an eviction judgment. These findings indicate that policy-makers interested in monitoring and reducing discrimination should focus not only on the front end of the housing process—the freedom to obtain housing anywhere—but also on the back end: the freedom to maintain housing anywhere.

Causal Effects of Parental Leave on Adolescents’ Household Work
Andreas Kotsadam, Henning Finseraas

We exploit two Norwegian parental leave reforms to investigate their effects on adolescents’ household work. The main reform increased the parental leave time by 7 weeks, 4 of which were reserved for the father, while the second reform raised only the general parental leave time by 3 weeks. We find a robust and substantial effect of the main reform implying that adolescent girls born immediately after the reform are less likely to do household work. By analyzing the two parental leave reforms together, we show that the father quota drives the results.

Identity

Embarrassment and Social Organization: A Multiple Identities Model
Omar Lizardo, Jessica L. Collett

We empirically evaluate the proposition that the very same situational mechanisms that tend to evoke multiple identities—the processing of cognitive and affective information from the standpoint of discordant self-identifications—also produce variations in the experience of embarrassment. We integrate the classic Goffmanian model of the social sources of embarrassment with recent theorizing on the ecological features of encounters that invoke multiple identities (audience size, multiplexity, and audience heterogeneity). We use survey data obtained via the experience sampling method to show that these same mechanisms are connected to the higher self-reported levels of embarrassment in systematic and predictable ways net of fixed individual-level factors. We close by outlining the implications of our results for the revitalization of sociological research on embarrassment, specifically an approach that connects systematic features of the structural and relational position of persons with the concrete characteristics of situations in which interaction occurs.

World Citizenship and Concern for Global Warming: Building the Case for a Strong International Civil Society
Katrina Running

Climate change shares many characteristics with classic social dilemmas. Social psychological studies of social dilemmas have found that individuals who identify as members of social groups are more likely to cooperate with other group members. Using multilevel models and the 2005–2008 wave of the World Values Survey, I test the effect of four social identities—world citizen, national citizen, local community member, and autonomous individual—on the odds an individual considers global warming a very serious problem. I find that identification as a world citizen increases the odds an individual judges global warming to be very serious, but only for individuals who also identify as autonomous individuals. I argue that awareness of the individual and collective nature of environmental risks may strengthen efforts to promote ecological citizenship.

Social Psychology Quarterly 76(3)

Social Psychology Quarterly: September 2013: Volume 76, Issue 3

Advancing Identity Theory: Examining the Relationship between Activated Identities and Behavior in Different Social Contexts
Michael J. Carter

Resounding Silences: Subtle Norm Regulation in Everyday Interactions
Namkje Koudenburg, Tom Postmes, and Ernestine H. Gordijn

The Normative Order of Reporting Police Misconduct: Examining the Roles of Offense Seriousness, Legitimacy, and Fairness
Michael A. Long, Jennifer Eileen Cross, Tara O’Connor Shelley, and Sanja Kutnjak Ivković

Sarah A. Mustillo, Kristen Budd, and Kimber Hendrix
Obesity, Labeling, and Psychological Distress in Late-Childhood and Adolescent Black and White Girls: The Distal Effects of Stigma

Crime & Delinquency 59(7)

Crime & Delinquency, October 2013: Volume 59, Issue 7

Does Prison-Based Adult Basic Education Improve Postrelease Outcomes for Male Prisoners in Florida?
Rosa Minhyo Cho and John H. Tyler

The authors use administrative data from Florida to determine the extent to which prison-based adult basic education (ABE) improves inmate’s postrelease labor market outcomes, such as earnings and employment. Using two nonexperimental comparison groups, the authors find evidence that ABE participation is associated with higher postrelease earnings and employment rates, especially for minorities. The authors find that the relationship is the largest for ABE participants who had uninterrupted ABE instruction and for those who received other education services. However, the results do not find any positive effects of ABE participation on reducing recidivism.

Deterrence and Macro-Level Perceptions of Punishment Risks: Is There a “Collective Wisdom”?
Gary Kleck and J. C. Barnes

Prior research indicates that individual perceptions of the risk of punishment for criminal behavior are unrelated to actual risks of punishment in the areas in which individuals reside. It could be argued, however, that the relevant policy question is whether variation in actual punishment levels affects average perceptions of risk among aggregates. Scholars have argued that there is “collective wisdom” in the perceptions of collectivities of humans, even if the views of individuals are inaccurate. This thesis is tested using survey data on individual perceptions of the risks of legal punishment for crimes, aggregated up to the level of county populations. The authors find that the aggregate perceptions of county populations are generally not related to actual county levels of the certainty, severity, and swiftness of punishment. Thus, neither the perceptions of individuals nor the average perceptions of populations have any significant association with actual risks of punishment.

Community Characteristics and Methamphetamine Use in a Rural State: An Analysis of Preincarceration Usage by Prison Inmates
Aaron Roussell, Malcolm D. Holmes, and Richard Anderson-Sprecher

Social disorganization theory attempts to explain the relationships of community characteristics and patterns of illicit drug use, but methamphetamine poses a problem for this perspective. Methamphetamine use is prevalent in rural areas, where greater community social organization may contribute to its usage, a possibility examined here using data from a highly rural state. Data were collected from a population of prisoners entering Wyoming state correctional facilities from July 2005 to June 2006. Hierarchical linear models estimated the effects of individual- and county-level variables on preincarceration amphetamine/methamphetamine use and severity of use. Results indicate that individual-level variables predict use, whereas county-level variables predict severity of use. The effects of individual-level measures of social control were consistent with the social disorganization model, whereas the effects of county-level variables provided support for the social organization argument. Implications of the findings for a multidimensional, multilevel conceptualization of the social organization/disorganization continuum are discussed.

Maternal Employment and Juvenile Delinquency: A Longitudinal Study of Korean Adolescents
Joongyeup Lee, Hyunseok Jang, and Leana A. Bouffard

Historically, many have suggested that women’s participation in the labor force has contributed to higher juvenile delinquency rates due to the extensive amount of time and attention that working mothers must spend outside the home and away from their children. Although some researchers have examined this hypothesis, findings are mixed and inconclusive. Using longitudinal data provided by the Korean Youth Panel Survey project, the effects of maternal employment on a child’s propensity to commit general delinquency are examined. Results from hierarchical linear modeling analysis indicated that children of working mothers display a higher likelihood of becoming involved in delinquency. In addition, working mothers with higher educational backgrounds were more apt to have a child who commits delinquency.

Problem-Oriented Policing and Open-Air Drug Markets: Examining the Rockford Pulling Levers Deterrence Strategy
Nicholas Corsaro, Rod K. Brunson, and Edmund F. McGarrell

Problem-oriented policing strategies have been regarded as promising approaches for disrupting open-air drug markets in vulnerable communities. Pulling levers deterrence interventions, which are consistent with the problem-oriented framework, have shown potential as an effective mechanism for reducing and preventing youth, gun, and gang violence. This study examines the effect of a strategic, pulling levers intervention that was implemented by law enforcement officials in Rockford, Illinois, to address drug markets in a high crime neighborhood. The initiative builds on a similar effort developed in High Point, North Carolina, and represents an extension of pulling levers that was originally developed in Boston. The impact evaluation uses a mixed method of quantitative hierarchical growth curve models and qualitative interviews with residents. Study findings suggest that the Rockford strategy was associated with a statistically significant and substantive reduction in crime, drug, and nuisance offenses in the target neighborhood. Results from this examination have implications for both research and public policy.

Does the Presence of Sexually Oriented Businesses Relate to Increased Levels of Crime? An Examination Using Spatial Analyses
Eric S. McCord and Richard Tewksbury

Scholarly debate about whether the presence of sexually oriented businesses in a community is related to increased levels of crime has been present for several decades. This argument about the “secondary effects” of such businesses shows support for the link to increased crime as well as evidence of a lack of relationship. This article addresses this debate, presenting findings from three spatial analyses using varying-sized buffer zones of rates of violent, property, and public order offenses in the vicinity of sexually oriented businesses in Louisville, Kentucky. Results show that sexually oriented businesses are associated with much higher rates of all types of offenses in the immediate vicinity of the business and continue to have significant effects on crime levels as one moves further from the business. At the site of the sexually oriented business, community, social and economic characteristics are outweighed by the effect of the business; in farther-reaching buffer zones, community characteristics become more important, although the effects of the business remain significant.