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Author: Wikoff, Nora
Resulting in 2 citations.
1. Wikoff, Nora
Reconsidering Poverty and Race as Criminogenic Influences Among American Youth
Presented: Tampa FL, Society for Social Work and Research 15th Annual Conference, January 2011
Cohort(s): NLSY97
Publisher: Society for Social Work and Research (SSWR)
Keyword(s): Crime; Delinquency/Gang Activity; Family Influences; Peers/Peer influence/Peer relations; Poverty; Racial Differences

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Purpose: Social disorganization and anomie theory assume that minorities and low-income individuals commit crimes at greater rates, based upon official crime data. Studies using self-report data offer conflicting evidence, suggesting that there are no significant differences across race or class in reported criminal behavior. Little research has examined the role that household economic resources, in the form of household asset ownership, may have on the onset of criminal engagement among youth. This study examined the extent to which household asset ownership was associated with onset of crime among youth.

Methods: OLS regression was used to measure the association between income-poverty, household net worth, racial status, and level of youth's criminal and delinquent behavior. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97), 1,218 American adolescents (26.6% African American, 21.1% Hispanic, and 52.3% White) between 14 to 18 years old completed computer-based modules on criminal and delinquent behaviors at each of the first four waves of the study (1997-2000). Youth reported whether they had run away from home, carried a handgun, joined a gang, stolen items worth more than $50.00, assaulted someone, or sold illicit drugs. Youths' criminal involvement was coded from 0 and 10 for each wave, with higher numbers indicating higher levels of criminal and delinquent activity. Scores for each wave were summed to create an overall scale measuring level of criminal involvement among youth during late adolescence. First wave baseline characteristics were collected, with the dependent variable measuring youth's criminal and delinquent activity over the first four study waves. Control variables measured demographic characteristics, youth's behavioral and emotional problems (using Achenback Youth Self-Report questions), past experience of bullying victimization, family functioning, maternal awareness of youth activities, neighborhood risk factors, and percentage peer involvement in gangs.

Results: The results found no significant association between youth's household net worth, income-poverty, racial status and level of criminal involvement. Mean level of criminal involvement was 18.57% higher among those who had been bullied by age 12, b=.19, t=3.79, p<.001. Mean level of criminal involvement was 35.79% higher for youth who perceived that nearly all peers were involved in gangs than among youth who perceived that none of their peers were involved in gangs, b=.36, t=4.27, p<.001. Mean criminal involvement was also 35.18% higher for youth reporting high levels of substance use than among youth who reported the lowest level of substance abuse, b=.35, t=18.14, p<.001.

Implications: These results suggest a tenuous connection between crime and poverty among older adolescents. By contrast, youth characteristics, family dynamics, and peer influences significantly predicted level of criminal activity. These findings suggest that self-control and social control theories, which emphasize the role of parental influences on the development of criminal propensity, better explain criminal offending than social disorganization or strain/anomie theories, which emphasize poverty and dysfunctional cultural norms. Further research is needed among youths to determine whether the findings in this analysis apply to all youth at risk of engaging in criminal behavior.

Bibliography Citation
Wikoff, Nora. "Reconsidering Poverty and Race as Criminogenic Influences Among American Youth." Presented: Tampa FL, Society for Social Work and Research 15th Annual Conference, January 2011.
2. Wikoff, Nora
Validation of the Delinquency Index: Youth Report Against the Rasch Measurement Model
Presented: Chicago IL, American Society of Criminology Annual Meeting, 2012
Cohort(s): NLSY97
Publisher: American Society of Criminology
Keyword(s): Delinquency/Gang Activity; Ethnic Differences; Racial Differences; Scale Construction; Self-Reporting

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Researchers have justified their embrace of self-report delinquency scales on theoretical and methodical grounds. Not only do summative scales appear to measure behaviors across the delinquency spectrum, their continuous distributions free researchers to use a wider array of statistical techniques. Unfortunately, few studies have examined the validity of self-report delinquency scales to confirm that scales accurately measure delinquent behavior across subgroups, such as age and racial and ethnic status. Using data from the first wave of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, I use the Rasch measurement model to examine measurement properties of the Delinquency Index-Youth Report. This model tests whether the index provides consistent measurement across subgroups that include age, gender, and racial and ethnic status. Few researchers have applied the Rasch model to self-report delinquency scales, and none have applied the Rasch model to self-report delinquency measures used in the NLSY97 crime module. The results show that differential item functioning exists across age groups and racial and ethnic groups. Questions were harder for Whites to endorse than for African Americans and Hispanics, leading to misleading racial differences in delinquency. This paper discusses the implications of using these items to measure delinquent behavior among American youth.
Bibliography Citation
Wikoff, Nora. "Validation of the Delinquency Index: Youth Report Against the Rasch Measurement Model." Presented: Chicago IL, American Society of Criminology Annual Meeting, 2012.