The impact of parental attachment and supervision on fear of crime among adolescent males

This paper examines the effect of parental attachment and supervision on fear of crime among adolescent males. Earlier work has suggested that feelings of powerlessness and association with deviant peers have a significant impact on adolescent fear of crime. As the nature of the parent-adolescent relationship is also a key predictor of adolescent self-concept and quality of peer relationships, we felt that parental attachment and supervision should also impact fear of crime. Using self-report surveys from 318 incarcerated adolescent males, we examine the effect of parental attachment and supervision, along with other demographic and contextual variables, on fear of criminal victimization, perceived safety, and perceptions of risk. The results indicate that those boys who are most attached to their parents are less fearful of criminal victimization and feel safer in their environment than do their counterparts with weaker parental attachments. Additionally, those boys whose parents supervise them closely are more fearful of criminal victimization, but have lower levels of perceived risk of victimization. Implications and ramifications for social policies and future research are also discussed.     

Peer victimization in multicultural schools in Spain and England

Most surveys of bullying and school violence have not addressed the issue of aggression or social exclusion related to the ethnic, cultural or racial background of the recipient. The limited number of studies in this area tend to focus on whether children from different cultural groups are more or less likely to be victimized by peers overall, reporting no significant differences between cultural groups in terms of levels of victimization or bullying others. This study aimed to expand on the previous literature in a number of ways. Pupils from a variety of cultural backgrounds in two countries, England and Spain, were surveyed about their perceptions and experiences of seven types of victimization (three were explicitly related to the cultural background of the recipient). Pupils were disapproving of victimization, more so for cultural victimization. Pupils from cultural minority groups were more likely than those from cultural majority groups to report experiencing victimization based on their cultural background (name calling and social exclusion). Pupils reported being upset or angry as a result of the victimization. They were most likely to report the reason for cultural victimization as “being different”. The findings are discussed in terms of the need for schools to address the issue of cultural victimization.     

Fear of Crime and Behavioral Adaptations: Testing the Effects of Fear of Violence on Unstructured Socializing with Peers

This study examines whether fear of violent crime experienced by adolescents influences their involvement in unstructured socializing with peers. To test this relationship, we examine data on youth in Chicago collected as part of the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN). The results show that the fear of violent crime in neighborhoods and at schools reduces participation in unstructured socializing with peers. However, this result was only observed for adolescents living in neighborhoods with low levels of concentrated disadvantage. This study provides insight into the consequences of fear of crime for individual behavior. Fear of crime can result in withdrawal from social situations, including avoidance of situations that increase the risk for delinquency and victimization.     

Violent Victimization Vulnerability: Testing a Conceptual Model of Personality,Social, and Community Factors

The current study extends theories of crime to explain victimization by examining the direct effects of personality factors (low self-control), social factors (social bonds), and community factors (collective efficacy) on violent victimization. Next, we examine the effects of these theories indirectly through risky lifestyles to impact violent victimization. The proposed conceptual model is tested among a large national sample of youth (ages 12–16) from three waves of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health data (Add Health). Self-control, social bonds, and collective efficacy impact violent victimization indirectly through their effects on risky lifestyles, including unstructured peer socialization, peer marijuana use, respondents’ own marijuana use, and violence. The proposed conceptual model was generally supported and future directions for research to test and enhance this conceptual model are considered     

Ecological assessments of community disorder: Their relationship to fear of crime and theoretical implications

Researchers suggest that fear of crime arises from community disorder, cues in the social and physical environment that are distinct from crime itself. Three ecological methods of measuring community disorder are presented: resident perceptions reported in surveys and on-site observations by trained raters, both aggregated to the street block level, and content analysis of crime- and disorder-related newspaper articles aggregated to the neighborhood level. Each method demonstrated adequate reliability and roughly equal ability to predict subsequent fear of crime among 412 residents of 50 blocks in 50 neighborhoods in Baltimore, MD. Pearson and partial correlations (controlling for sex, race, age, and victimization) were calculated at multiple levels of analysis: individual, individual deviation from block, and community (block/neighborhood). Hierarchical linear models provided comparable results under more stringent conditions. Results linking different measure of disorder with fear, and individual and aggregated demographics with fear inform theories about fear of crime and extend research on the impact of community social and physical disorder. Implications for ecological assessment of community social and physical environments are discussed.     

“They Dumped Me Like Trash”: The Social and Psychological Toll of Victimization on Latino Day Laborers' Lives

Although recent rhetoric links undocumented immigrants to criminality, reports indicate undocumented immigrants commit less crime than their native-born counterparts and that this vulnerable group may be at increased risk for criminal victimization. Immigrants living in new immigrant settlement cities may be particularly at risk for exposure to criminal victimization due to the vulnerabilities associated with a lack of an established Latino community and limited availability of culturally appropriate social services to provide support. This ethnographic study examines the experiences of victimization and its social and psychological toll of a street-recruited sample of Latino day laborers (LDLs) (N = 25) living and working in Baltimore, a new immigrant settlement city. Findings elucidate and describe the specific types of victimization experienced by LDLs, including workplace victimization (wage theft, abandonment at the jobsite, poor working conditions, verbal abuse) and street-level victimization (assault and robbery), as well as reveal the social and psychological toll of victimization (sociocultural alienation, despair or desesperación, and problem drinking) on their lives. Findings have implications for community psychology, through research and practice, as they provide insights for prevention and intervention within the intersection of structural vulnerability (i.e., undocumented immigration status), violence, and mental health.     

Street Youths′ Fear of Violent Crime

Utilizing a sample of 300 street youths the article examines the roles, perceptions of control, depression, prior victimization, criminal behavior, peer crime and victimization, homelessness, and violent subcultural values play in the perception of violent victimization risk and the fear of violent crime. Results suggest that previous victimization and peers’ victimization along with depression and an external locus of control increases perceptions of victimization risk for violent crime. Younger street youths also perceived greater victimization risk. Further, females and minority respondents have higher levels of fear of violent victimization. Levels of fear of violent crime are also predicted by previous violent victimization, depression, and an external locus of control. In contrast, social support and violent subcultural values were associated with lower levels of fear. Findings are discussed in terms of extending theory to help understand perceptions of victimization risk and fear of crime.     

Victims' emotional distress and preventive measures usage: Influence of crime severity,risk perception,and fear

The central thesis of this study is that crime victims' emotional distress, influenced by the severity of the offence experienced, impacts their propensity to utilize preventive measures via its influence on perceived risk of victimization and fear of crime. Path analysis was conducted to test a model of these relationships, utilizing data from a crime victimization survey conducted on the Caribbean Island, Trinidad, in 2015. Results suggest a direct predictive relationship between crime severity and emotional distress and indirect effects of emotional distress on preventive measures through risk perception and fear of crime. Findings were discussed in the context of prior research, comparability, and variances, and practical implications were noted.     

Socio-Demographic Correlates of Fear of Crime and the Social Context of Contemporary Urban China

Previous research in the West has established major socio-demographic correlates of fear of crime. The interpretation of these correlates is typically based on the concept of physical or social vulnerability of individuals. These correlates are implicitly regarded as invariant to social or community contexts, reflecting universal human behavioral patterns. The present study argues that social change may alter patterns of perceptions associated with fear among socio-demographic groups, thus affecting socio-demographic correlates of fear of crime. We explore how social changes in China have created a generational gap that influences the effects of age and education on fear of crime. The study finds that, in contrast with the well-established patterns in Western communities, the young and educated exhibit a higher level of fear of crime in urban China than their counterparts. The study also finds that consistent with Western literature, females are fearful and that personal victimization experience increases the level of fear. We discuss the social and community processes that produce these interesting patterns.     

The gender paradigm in domestic violence research and theory: Part 1—The conflict of theory and data

Feminist theory of intimate violence is critically reviewed in the light of data from numerous incidence studies reporting levels of violence by female perpetrators higher than those reported for males, particularly in younger age samples. A critical analysis of the methodology of these studies is made with particular reference to the Conflict Tactics Scale developed and utilised by Straus and his colleagues. Results show that the gender disparity in injuries from domestic violence is less than originally portrayed by feminist theory. Studies are also reviewed indicating high levels of unilateral intimate violence by females to both males and females. Males appear to report their own victimization less than females do and to not view female violence against them as a crime. Hence, they differentially under-report being victimized by partners on crime victim surveys. It is concluded that feminist theory is contradicted by these findings and that the call for “qualitative” studies by feminists is really a means of avoiding this conclusion. A case is made for a paradigm having developed amongst family violence activists and researchers that precludes the notion of female violence, trivializes injuries to males and maintains a monolithic view of a complex social problem.     

Social Capital and Fear of Crime in Adolescence: A Multilevel Study

Hierarchical linear modeling was used to examine the relationships between social capital (at the individual, the neighborhood, and the regional levels) and adolescents' fear of crime, while controlling for the main individual (sociodemographics, television viewing, and bullying victimization), neighborhood (neighborhood size and aggregated victimization), and regional (crime rate and level of urbanization) variables. Data were analyzed using a three‐level model based on 22,639 15.7‐year‐old (SD = 0.67) students nested within 1081 neighborhoods and 19 Italian regions. The findings revealed that individual and contextual measures of social capital, modeled at the individual, neighborhood, and regional levels simultaneously, showed negative associations with adolescents' fear of crime. Males and participants with higher family affluence were less likely to feel fear of crime, whereas victimization, both at the individual and neighborhood levels, had a positive association with fear of crime. Strengths, limitations, and potential applications of the study are discussed.     

Crime, Social Capital, and Community Participation

Social disorganization at the neighborhood and community levels has been consistently linked to various forms of criminal activity. However, a very much smaller body of literature addresses the effects of crime on community organizations. In some studies, crime appears to energize communities while in others, crime leads to withdrawal from community life. Using department of health crime victimization data and interviews with 2,985 low-income inner city residents living in 487 multi-family dwellings, a multi-level model examined the relationships among crime victimization, social organization, and participation in neighborhood organizations. Social organization at the individual and building levels was measured using recent formulations of social capital theory. Findings regarding crime suggested more signs of a chilling effect on participation than of an energizing effect, especially at the building level. Social capital at the building level was more strongly and consistently related to participation in community organizations than was crime.     

Assessing Emotional Abuse Victimization and Perpetration: A Multi-Theoretical Examination

Criminological theories traditionally used to account for crime and deviance have now been applied to explain physical intimate partner violence (IPV). However, little research has examined whether these theories can also account for emotional abuse victimization and perpetration in intimate relationships. Such an endeavor is important because one important requirement for evaluating theory is the exploration of core propositions with different types of behaviors and, of course, testing this social problem in a theoretical lens will inform health professionals and others to identify correlates that may help them create preventative solutions to reduce or end this problem. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine the efficacy of self-control, social learning, and strain theories to explain emotional abuse victimization and perpetration. Using a sample of college students from two public universities (N = 434), results show variables derived from general strain theory better predicted emotional abuse victimization and perpetration than self-control or social learning. Limitations, as well as directions for future research, are discussed.     

Crime prevention through social and physical environmental change

One approach to crime prevention where behavior analysts can make important contributions is the modification of environmental opportunities and victim vulnerabilities that are related to higher rates of offending. Examples of environmental crime prevention are discussed in the following areas: (1) modifying physical environments in order to "harden" targets of crime, (2) training victims to be less vulnerable to victimization, (3) eliminating portrayals of certain groups of people that legitimize their victimization, and (4) organizing neighborhoods and communities to strengthen their means of social control. Two implications of environmental crime prevention-the role of individual differences and the scope of prevention-are discussed.     

Death-Related Crime: Applying Bryant’s Conceptual Paradigm of Thanatological Crime to Serial Homicide

The study of death within the field of sociology is expansive yet despite this research there is a lack of inquiry within the area of crime and deviance on the topic of thanatological crime. One researcher that has conducted an analysis of this topic is Bryant (2003). In his exposé on thanatological crime, Bryant (2003) developed a conceptual paradigm of death-related crime that consisted of four motivational categories and two patterns of victimization. Using data from the Radford/FGCU Serial Killer Database (Aamodt 2013), this article extends and applies the conceptual paradigm of thanatological crime to serial homicide.     

managing the action: sports bookmakers as entrepreneurs

More and more states have moved to legalize various forms of gambling as a viable way to raise substantial revenues. And while some have considered adding sports betting to their menu of games, Nevada continues to be the only state where placing a bet on sports events is legal. This is both puzzling and ironic considering the popularity of gambling and the prominence of sports. Despite the lack of concrete knowledge about illegal sports betting, two justifications for keeping it illegal have dominated the public debate. The first has to do with whether legal sports betting could successfully compete with illegal operations were it to be legalized and the second has to do with a purported link between gambling on sports and organized crime. This paper focuses on the second line of argument and examines the social, organizational, and occupational features of bookmaking. If bookmakers are conduits for organized crime, as is claimed, there should be evidence of this in the day-to-day activities of bookmaking and in the career trajectories of bookmakers. The analysis is based upon interviews with 47 sports bookmakers working in the Rust Belt region. Drawing upon what sports bookies themselves have to say about their experiences in the business and their career trajectories, there appears to be little merit to the organized crime link argument. The analysis suggests that unlike other types of deviance, the social organization of bookmaking insulates bookies from the more typical consequences associated with frequent and prolonged deviant activity, for example, getting arrested, being prosecuted, serving time in prison, and forced association with other criminals. In fact, the findings suggest that bookies are more like entrepreneurs than criminals. While a single study cannot resolve the normative question about whether sports bookmaking should be criminalized, the findings do show that the social construction of bookmaking and bookmakers found in the public debate and popular culture does not reflect the reality of sports bookmaking.     

Fear of Crime and the Likelihood of Victimization: A Bi-Ethnic Comparison

Abstract

Fear of crime and the likelihood of future victimization for Hispanics and Blacks in the United States was examined. The sample size was 2,235 (1,696 Black and 539 Hispanic respondents). Fear of crime and the likelihood of victimization were perceived as serious social problems by both Hispanics and Blacks, but Hispanics and women reported higher levels of fear of crime and felt more likely to be victimized than Blacks and men did.     

disowning our shadow: a psychoanalytic approach to understanding punitive public attitudes

Punitive public attitudes cannot be easily explained by pointing to instrumental concerns (e.g., fear of crime, personal victimization, or real or perceived levels of crime). Instead, numerous observers have suggested that public punitiveness is more a symptom of free-floating anxieties and insecurities resulting from social change than a rational response to crime problems. We argue that these public concerns might be better understood by drawing on the insights of psychoanalytic theory, and we review relevant theoretical work to that effect.     

流动儿童同伴侵害的特点及与内化问题的循环作用关系:一项追踪研究

本研究采用纵向设计,以北京市426名四、五年级流动儿童为被试,进行连续4次的追踪测查,考察流动儿童同伴侵害的特点及其与内化问题的动态相互作用关系。结果发现:(1)打工子弟学校流动儿童的同伴侵害与内化问题水平比公立学校流动儿童高;流动儿童的流动性越大,同伴侵害和内化问题越多。(2)控制了性别、年级、家庭社会经济地位(SES)和流动性后,从T1到T2,同伴侵害与孤独感为相互作用关系,且同伴侵害可以显著预测抑郁,但对社交焦虑的预测作用不显著,而从T2到T4,同伴侵害和3种内化问题的相互作用模式完全一致,即T2时的社交焦虑、抑郁和孤独感显著预测T3的同伴侵害,进而显著预测T4的社交焦虑、抑郁和孤独感。(3)抑郁、孤独感与同伴侵害的循环作用在两类流动儿童中具有较强的稳定性,而在社交焦虑和同伴侵害的模型中,打工子弟学校流动儿童的同伴侵害对社交焦虑的作用比公立学校流动儿童更大。可见,同伴侵害和内化问题呈循环作用关系,未来预防/干预研究可以聚焦于减少流动儿童的同伴侵害或内化问题的角度打破二者的恶性循环,帮助他们建立良好的人际关系,构建良性循环,促进他们的积极发展。