Explaining the Race/Ethnicity-Violence Relationship: Neighborhood Context and Social Psychological Processes

• NCJ Number: 211004
• Journal: Justice Quarterly Volume: 22 Issue: 2 Dated: June 2005 Pages: 224-251
• Author(s): Joanne M. Kaufman
• Date Published: June 2005
• Length: 28 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study improves on prior studies of factors in violent behavior by including race and ethnicity and expanding consideration of the various social psychological processes that mediate the impact of the neighborhood context on individual levels of violence, so as to explain the race/ethnicity-violence relationship.

Abstract

The study used the Add Health dataset, which offers the advantages of a large sample size, oversampling for many ethnic groups, and a wide variety of measures at both the individual level and community level from matched census data. Demographic measures covered race/ethnicity; age; sex; family structure; income; public assistance; mother's education; neighborhood-context measures; and neighborhood disadvantage, residential stability, and proportion urban. Social psychological theoretical measures pertained to attachment and commitment, bad temper, witnessed/victimized by violence, and depressive symptoms. The measures of violence in Add Health include a range of fighting behaviors and weapon-related violence that extend from less serious violence to more serious violence. To examine how social psychological processes may mediate the effects of neighborhood context in explaining the race/ethnicity violence relationships, the study performed descriptive, cross-sectional, and longitudinal analyses. The study showed the importance of including neighborhood context, socioeconomic status, and social psychological processes in explaining the relationship between race, ethnicity, and violence. The study found that having witnessed and been victimized by violence was by far the most important social psychological process in explaining this relationship. Overall, the study found that the combination of neighborhood context, socioeconomic status, and social psychological processes can explain most of the relationship between race and violence and ethnicity and violence. These social psychological processes also strongly mediate the relationship between the neighborhood context and individual levels of offending. 3 tables, 57 references, and appended multi-item scale description