The Good Kid Mad City: Youth of Color and the Neglecting of Explicit Race-Gender Analysis of Crime & the Life Course

• In Event: Trajectories of Offending and Conformity in the Transition to Adulthood

Abstract

This study investigates understudied aspects of life course literature: race, gender, and incarceration. In so doing, it intersects theories from two prominent sociological subfields: stratification and criminology. Many studies report national averages for "youth" and are, by statistical necessity, describing trends for the majority. This study highlights how white youth are most likely to evidence the "average" American youth trends. This indicates the need to disaggregate youth by social status and to look at the different life course trajectories taking into account race, social class, and gender. Utilizing data from a nationally representative survey of U.S. young adults (ages 23 to 27), this work focuses specifically on the trends for Black and Latino young adults. We pay particular attention to incarceration rates and their correlates. Compared to national averages, Black and Latino young adults are arrested more often than others. Specifically, the analysis of individual change embedded in a multilevel modeling framework is used to assess the heterogeneity in life course trajectories across Black and Latino young adults. As a result, we formulate implications for the prevention of the persistence of structural inequality and the incarceration of Black and Latino young adults.

Author

• De Andre' Terrell Beadle, University of Minnesota