Exploring the Generality of the Influence of Institutional Isolation among Youth on Crime

Prior research indicates that institutional isolation among youth is a strong correlate of levels of crime across large units of analysis. The generality and robustness of these findings, however, remain an open empirical question that requires drilling down to a smaller unit of analysis. The current study advances the extant literature by examining the salience of institutional attachments among youth to violent and property crime relying on a level of aggregation that more accurately estimates a “neighborhood effect.” Results of our census tract level analyses suggest that institutional isolation among youth explains 35–56% of variation in property and violent crime across neighborhoods.