The Synergistic Influence of Childhood Lead Exposure and Neighborhood Social Context on Adulthood Criminal[ized] Activity

• In Event: 4155 - Section on Crime, Law, and Deviance Refereed Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: 10. Neighborhoods and Mobility

Abstract

This paper investigates whether childhood lead exposure increases the likelihood or severity of criminal[ized] activity in adulthood. This paper further asks whether childhood lead exposure is responsible for intra-neighborhood variation in later-in-life criminal[ized] activity, by examining the synergistic biochemical and social effects of lead exposure and neighborhood context. Epidemiological research has established clear links between lead exposure and cognitive and behavioral damage. From this has emerged the common refrain that lead exposure must cause criminal activity. However, very limited research has rigorously tested this assertion using substantial individual-level longitudinal data. Concurrently, criminological research has also repeatedly asserted that neighborhood disadvantage exacerbates youth’s criminal activity. However, this literature has not examined the additive or interactive effects of neighborhoods’ environmental characteristics (such as lead) alongside social characteristics. I track 150,000 individuals’ trajectories from childhood to adulthood in Baltimore city, using a unique, geocoded dataset that combines administrative data from lead tests and criminal case records, alongside neighborhood-level demographic data capturing multiple dimensions of social, economic, and political context. I use GIS rasterization to tailor all data to Baltimore’s “Neighborhood Statistical Areas” boundaries, socially-salient geographies relevant to the local context. I measure the individual, additive, and interactive effects of lead exposure and childhood neighborhood social context on the likelihood and severity of criminal involvement in adulthood. I further measure whether individual lead exposure accounts for intra-neighborhood differences in the effect of specific key neighborhood characteristics, namely racial makeup and poverty level, on youth’s likelihood of future criminal involvement. I predict that lead exposure and neighborhood social exposure cause independent negative outcomes, and together heighten the other. I further predict a significant interaction effect between lead and certain neighborhood features, indicating lead exposure may account for variation beneath neighborhood-level influences on crime outcomes.

Author

• Lee Scrivener, University of Wisconsin-Madison