Perceived Injustice, Social Support, and School Crime: A Gendered Test

• In Event: 106 - Open Refereed Roundtable Session I
  In Refereed Roundtable: A. Table 07. Gender and Violence

Abstract

The relationship between strains in the school environment and school crime is well-documented. The more students experience stressors at school, the more likely they are to participate in crime at school. Yet, general strain theory suggests that this relationship may be reduced by social support. Indeed, James, Clay-Warner & Bunch (forthcoming) find that the relationship between perceived injustice and school violence is reduced by supportive adults at school. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether the conditioning effects of social support are gendered. Past research indicates that social support may condition the strain-crime relationship for girls, but not boys. We test this hypothesis using data from the 2009 School Crime Supplement of the National Crime Victimization Survey. We have three main findings. First, we find that social support buffers the relationship between teacher unfairness and fighting for girls, but not boys. Second, social support moderates the relationship between teacher fairness and weapon carrying for boys, but not girls. Third, social support conditions the relationship between rule fairness and weapon-carrying for girls, but not boys. Our results indicate that social support matters for both boys and girls but may work differently depending on the types of stressors and crimes examined.

Authors

• Katie James, University of Georgia

• Jessica Seberger, University of Georgia-Athens

• Jody Clay-Warner, University of Georgia