No Experience Required: Discrimination, Fear and Violent Delinquency

• In Event: Racial Discrimination and Crime

Abstract

Previous research identifies racial discrimination as a unique source of strain that can help explain criminal offending among young African Americans. But, can such criminogenic consequences occur without actually experiencing discrimination first-hand? The current study addresses this question by testing whether fear of discrimination influences offending. General strain theory predicts that anticipated strain, as well as realized ones, may influence offending, but there is little empirical research on the consequences of discrimination fear. Using data from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN) we analyze the association between adolescents’ fear of discrimination and violent delinquency. We further extend prior research on the discrimination-offending association by examining the experiences of both young African Americans and Hispanics. Preliminary results indicate that fear is associated with an increased likelihood violent delinquency among African Americans, net of reported first-hand discrimination experience, discrimination experiences of parents, and prior violent delinquency. However, among young Hispanics, neither discrimination fear nor reported first-hand experiences are associated with violence. The disparate findings suggest that the established direct association between discrimination and crime association may be unique to African Americans and that perhaps, for Hispanic youth, some additional moderating condition is required before discrimination influence involvement in crime.

Authors

• Daniel Herda, Merrimack College

• William McCarthy, University of California, Davis