Accounting for Youth Violence: The Moderating Influence of Race and Gender on the Relationship between Neighborhood Disorganization and Micro-Level Strain Processes

• In Event: Research on the Conditioning, Mediating, and Moderating Effects of General Strain Theory

Abstract

Neighborhood variations in youth violence have been explained from a social disorganization perspective. However, Agnew (2006) has suggested that while neighborhood characteristics such as economic disadvantage and residential mobility reduce a community’s ability to control crime, disorganization may also motivate offending through its effect on individual-level strain processes. Traditional social disorganization theory emphasizes the role of racial/ethnic heterogeneity, whereby it serves to impede control mechanisms that prevent crime. Further, living in disorganized communities increases exposure to strains conducive to crime (Agnew, 2006). In particular, much research highlights the relationship between increased exposure to violence within disorganized communities and youth engagement in violence (Gardner & Brooks-Gunn, 2009; Selner-O’Hagan et al., 1998). Yet, existing literature largely neglects multi-level examination of how social disorganization impacts the relationship between exposure to strain and youth violence and the extent to which such processes are moderated by race/ethnicity. Additionally, the literature also highlights gender differences in coping responses to strain. Using data from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods, we therefore examine, within and across conditions of disorganization, how the types of strain predictive of youth violence vary by gender and race, decoupling race/ethnicity to include different ethnicities within the Hispanic category.

Authors

• Maria Joao Lobo Antunes, Towson University

• Michelle Manasse, Towson University