NCJ Number
182048
Journal
Justice Quarterly Volume: 17 Issue: 1 Dated: March 2000 Pages: 33-60
Date Published
March 2000
Length
28 pages
Annotation
This paper analyzes community-level influences on individuals’ social bonds, peer associations and delinquency.
Abstract
Social disorganization theory is usually considered a macro-level theory, and therefore has been used almost exclusively to explain variation in crime rates. Shaw and McKay, however, also applied their theory to explaining micro-level variation in social bonds, peer associations and delinquency. Specifically, they argued that social bonds and peer associations actually mediated the influence of social disorganization on delinquency. Little empirical research has focused on this interpretation of their theory. This study explicates the connections between neighborhood-level social disorganization and individual-level social bonds, peer associations and delinquency and tests them empirically with multilevel data and hierarchical linear modeling. The results show that social disorganization significantly affects peer associations but not social bonds. In addition, the effect of social disorganization on delinquency is mediated fully by peer associations. Figure, notes, tables, references, appendix