Contexts of Delinquency, Crime, and Victimization

Session Submission Type: Complete Thematic Panel

Abstract

One of the primary takeaways from the sociological analysis of crime, delinquency, and victimization is the importance of structural context in predicting these outcomes. These structural influences, however, exist at varying levels and exert their influence in different ways depending on the level of analysis (e.g., macro, meso, mirco). This thematic panel brings together four studies examining structural influences in four different contexts, ranging from micro-level interactions in small groups to societal level influences. The first study, which explores micro-level effects, examines the influence of peers on adolescents with a specific focus on the proportion of peers within adolescents’ networks who are being raised by single mothers. The second paper examines meso-level neighborhood effects, with a specific focus on the manner in which disadvantaged circumstances can impact children’s violent and emotional behaviors. The third study expands to the macro-level and explores the differences between urban and rural contexts insofar as they provide different pathways to criminal offending. Finally, the fourth paper engages in a cross-national comparisons of countries in the African Global South to examine socio-economic resources as sources of both risk and resilience with regards to exposure to violence.

Sub Unit

• Area IV. Correlates of Crime / 12. Poverty and Structural Inequalities

Division of Special Interest

• Divisions of Special Interest / Division of Communities and Place

Individual Presentations

• Peer Networks of Shared Family Disadvantage: Arenas of Comfort or Crime - Stacy De Coster, North Carolina State University; Kenneth J Sanchagrin, Appalachian State University; Karen Heimer, University of Iowa

• Violence in Context: Effects of Personal Networks and Neighborhood Context on Trajectories of Youth Violence - Heili Pals, Texas A&M; Gabriele Plickert, Cal Poly Pomona

• Disaggregating the “Rural” in Rural Crime: The Implications for a Social Disorganization Theory of Rural Crime - Kenneth J Sanchagrin, Appalachian State University

• Exposure to Violence in the Lives of Children in the Global North and South: Links to Socio-Economic Resources as Risk and Protective Factors - Holly Foster, Texas A&M; Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, Columbia University

Chair

• Kenneth J Sanchagrin, Appalachian State University