Reconsidering Poverty and Race as Criminogenic Influences Among American Youth

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.