Racial Differences in Adolescent Delinquency: Examining Peer Delinquency and the Conditioning Effect of Neighborhood Context

• In Event: Neighborhood Racial and Ethnic Context Historical and Contemporary Issues

Abstract

A small number of studies have identified differential association theory as an explanation of racial differences in offending, with some finding that blacks are exposed to more definitions favorable to crime, and that this explains a large portion of existing racial disparities. Separate research argues that racialized processes have contributed to large differences in neighborhood characteristics for the average black and white resident, and that these differing contexts are also important for explaining racial differences in offending. Finally, others have shown that the influence of delinquent peers is conditioned by neighborhood characteristics. We combine these three lines of thought to test several hypotheses using data from a sample of youths from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods. First, we expect that variation in association with delinquent peers will explain a significant amount of the disparity in delinquency between black and white juveniles. Second, we expect that the effect of peer delinquency will be amplified in disadvantaged neighborhoods, and particularly in neighborhoods with low levels of informal social control. Lastly, we expect this moderating influence of neighborhood context on the effect of peer delinquency to be stronger for black juveniles than for whites. Results generally support our expectations.

Authors

• Jorge Luis Hernandez, Florida State University

• Brian Stults, Florida State University

• Cecilia Chouhy, Florida State University