Adolescent Violence at the Nexus of Neighborhoods and Schools

• In Event: 20807 - Violence

Abstract

How residents of disadvantaged neighborhoods can mobilize to address violence among local adolescents remains a prominent yet insufficiently answered question. We address this by testing a central yet neglected aspect of Shaw and McKay’s social disorganization model, which is that the extent of poverty and social capital in adolescents’ schools play a major role in shaping their violence trajectories. We do so with data from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN) linked to student- and school-level data on Chicago Public Schools. School-level social capital is assessed with longitudinal survey measures of the extent of trust and collective responsibility among teachers and parents. Results from multilevel Rasch models affirm that adolescents exposed to heightened school social capital have substantially reduced violence propensities. Moreover, associations of neighborhood structural and social factors with violence are eclipsed by that of exposure to school poverty, and this latter association is mitigated significantly for adolescents exposed to high levels of school social capital. Finally, racial inequalities in school exposures are found to contribute to the Black-White gap in violence perpetration. These findings suggest that social capital anchored on schools is essential for understanding how urban communities can mobilize to reduce violence and potentially a wide range of other social problems.

Authors

• Nicolo P Pinchak, University of Chicago

• David S. Kirk, University of Pennsylvania