Who Shows Up and Where? A Further Test of Assumptions Underlying the Systemic Model

• In Event: New Extensions of Social Disorganization Theory

Abstract

Bursik & Grasmick’s (1993) systemic model of crime describes an indirect path from social networks to crime reductions through informal social control. In recent work, researchers (e.g., Bellair & Browning 2010), however, found that social networks and informal social control do not always act in unison or as expected within the framework of the systemic model. In this study, we further test this assumption by examining the role of active parental involvement in school in addition to membership within local organizations, a popular measure in previous work. Using panel data from a population-based sample, the Toledo Adolescent Relationships Study (n = 1021), we analyze the importance of parental involvement and informal social control on male and female adolescents’ odds of school suspension as well as arrest. Using cross-level interactions, we assess individual-level parental involvement within the school context of parental involvement while controlling for traditional predictors of social disorganization. Finally, we stratify models based on census-tract level characteristics to further understand the context to which parental involvement and informal social control matters. Our findings offer the opportunity to better understand the systemic model of crime and ways in which insights from the systemic model warrant consideration.

Authors

• Brian J. Timm, Bowling Green State University

• Monica A. Longmore, Bowling Green State University

• Peggy C. Giordano, Bowling Green State University

• Wendy D. Manning, Bowling Green State University