Consequences of Violent Victimization for Native American Youth in Early Adulthood.

Native American youth are at an elevated risk of violent victimization. And because of their vulnerable position in society, they may also be at risk of experiencing a host of adverse consequences as a result of being victimized. Accordingly, using a subsample of 558 Native American youth and two waves of data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (49.8 % female; 12-19 years at Wave I; 19-26 years at Wave III), we examined the effects of violent victimization during adolescence on a range of outcomes in early adulthood (poor health, depressive symptoms, suicidality, financial hardship, violent and property offending, alcohol problems, hard drug use, and marijuana use). We also assessed whether youth's attachments to family and to school moderate the effects of victimization on these outcomes. The results showed that adolescent victimization is linked to a small number of outcomes-poor health, depressive symptoms, and violent offending-and that the protective effects of social attachments are not widespread. Specifically, family attachments moderated the effects of victimization on poor health and depressive symptoms, and school attachments moderated the effects of victimization on property offending. These findings suggest that the consequences of victimization and the protective effects of social attachments may differ for Native American youth, and that further quantitative and qualitative research is necessary to understand these patterns.

Longitudinal effects of violent victimization during adolescence on adverse outcomes in adulthood: a focus on prosocial attachments.

OBJECTIVE: To assess how prosocial attachments to school and family may diminish the effects of violent victimization during adolescence on adverse outcomes in adulthood. STUDY DESIGN: We analyzed secondary data on 13,555 participants from waves 1 (1994-1995) and 3 (2001-2002) of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, a nationally representative sample of US high school and middle school students. Adverse outcomes in adulthood included offending, alcohol problems, drug use, risky sexual behavior, violent victimization, depression, low self-esteem, suicidality, hospitalizations, sexually transmitted infections, extreme weight control, and obesity. Analyses were conducted separately for males and females. RESULTS: Our multivariate regression analyses demonstrated that adolescent victimization is a significant predictor of a host of problems in adulthood. Nevertheless, attachment to school and to family meaningfully reduced the effect of victimization on nearly every adult outcome we assessed. CONCLUSIONS: Strong attachments to school and family in adolescence can reduce the long-term harms of violence on the lives of young persons. Incorporating this insight into regular clinical assessment could yield significant behavioral, health, and psychoemotional benefits for victims of violence.

The prevalence of sexual violence in prison: the state of the knowledge base and implications for evidence-based correctional policy making.

The issue of prison violence and misconduct has been the subject of considerable academic attention, yet particularized areas of violent victimization within prisons have gone relatively unnoticed. One such area involves sexual violence in prisons. Scholars have argued that sexual violence contributes to a host of institutional and individual-level problems, yet the primary limitation of this body of literature is that it has been largely confined to methodologically questionable studies of prison rape prevalence. The purpose of this study, therefore, is to critically take stock of what is and what is not currently known about the prevalence of prison sexual violence. In doing so, it highlights the direction that future research should take so that evidence-based policies concerning prison sexual violence may be developed.

Maternal cigarette smoking during pregnancy and criminal/deviant behavior: a meta-analysis.

A growing body of empirical literature has emerged examining the somewhat inconsistent relationship between maternal cigarette smoking (MCS) during pregnancy and children's subsequent antisocial behavior. To systematically assess what existing studies reveal regarding MCS as a criminogenic risk factor for offspring, the authors subjected this body of literature to a meta-analysis. The analysis reveals a statistically significant--yet rather small--overall mean "effect size" of the relationship between MCS and the likelihood children will engage in deviant/criminal behavior. In addition to being rather moderate in size, the MCS-crime/deviance relationship is sensitive to a number of methodological specifications across empirical studies--particularly those associated with sample characteristics. The implications of this modest, and somewhat unstable, relationship are discussed in terms of guidelines for future research on this subject and how existing theoretical perspectives may be integrated to explain the MCS-crime/deviance link.

"I Suck at Everything": Crime, Arrest, and the Generality of Failure.

In this paper we advance the idea that getting arrested amounts to "failing at crime." And akin to the notion of the generality of deviance-where those who engage in any given form of criminal behavior are also likely to engage in a wide array of other problematic behaviors-we examine whether failing at crime (getting arrested) is associated with other forms of life failure. Using data from multiple waves of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, our results reveal that, independent of one's level of self-reported criminal behavior and other key potential confounders (IQ and self-control), being arrested is a significant predictor of a host of life failures related to education, employment, relationships, and health. The key implication of our study is that it highlights the need to develop a theory of the "generality of failure."

Cognitive ability and delinquent behavior among inner-city youth: a life-course analysis of main, mediating, and interaction effects.

Drawing on the emerging life-course paradigm in criminological theory, this study examines the relationship between cognitive ability and delinquent behavior within a sample of inner-city youth. The results indicate that net of statistical controls, cognitive ability maintains a robust inverse relationship with the likelihood of the onset of delinquency, the early onset of delinquency, and the persistence of delinquency during the 18-year period covered by the dataset. Furthermore, cognitive ability mediates the effect of concentrated disadvantage on both the onset and early onset of delinquency. Overall, the results of this study suggest that cognitive ability is an important criminogenic risk factor that has important implications for both correctional interventions and the continued development of structural and multilevel theories of crime.

Parental efficacy, self-control, and delinquency: A test of a general theory of crime on a nationally representative sample of youth.

Criminologists have recently begun examining Gottfredson and Hirschi's (1990) proposition that parenting is the primary influence on children's levels of self-control. The few existing studies on the subject, however, have typically been based on small, nonrandom samples. The current study examines the relationships between parental efficacy, self-control, and delinquent behavior using data from a nationally representative sample of adolescents (the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health). The results indicate that although parental efficacy is an important precursor to self-control, contrary to Gottfredson and Hirschi's proposition, self-control does not completely mediate the relationship between parental efficacy and delinquency. The implications for future research and theoretical development are discussed.

Self-control, negative affect, and young driver aggression: an assessment of competing theoretical claims.

A large body of research reveals support for Agnew's general strain theory (GST) and Gottfredson and Hirschi's self-control theory, yet the two perspectives make decidedly different predictions concerning the relationships between self-control, negative affect (e.g., anger), and criminal/deviant behavior. Where GST specifies indirect and conditioning effects of self-control and negative affect on criminal/deviant behavior, self-control theory states that the independent effect of indicators of anger would be spurious and should disappear on controlling for self-control. We test these propositions using survey data from a probability sample of young adults. The structural equation models indicate that, although anger is largely the consequence of self-control, self-control and negative affect exert significant direct effects on driving aggression. These results highlight the need to integrate GST and self-control theories to better explain this form of deviant behavior.

The systemic model of crime and institutional efficacy: an analysis of the social context of offender reintegration.

The systemic model of crime has received considerable empirical attention from criminologists; yet, an often-neglected component of the theoretical framework is the role of social institutions as a source of both formal and informal social control. Accordingly, the current study builds on recent research that considers the importance of institutional strength for the reduction of criminal behavior; in particular, the authors assess the impact of social-structural characteristics on the treatment program integrity (i.e., institutional efficacy) of 38 halfway house programs in Ohio. The authors' results indicate that communities suffering from concentrated resource deprivation have a more difficult time creating and maintaining strong institutions of public social control. The implications for criminological theory and correctional policy are discussed.