NCJ Number
184360
Journal
Journal of Youth and Adolescence Volume: 29 Issue: 4 Dated: August 2000 Pages: 479-498
Editor(s)
Daniel Offer
Date Published
August 2000
Length
20 pages
Annotation
The authors examined the degree to which an individual's religious involvement significantly mediated and buffered the effects of neighborhood disorder on youth crime.
Abstract
To study the effects of religion, the analysis was based on the fifth wave of data from the National Youth Survey, focusing on black respondents given the historical and contemporary significance of the African-American church for blacks. Results from estimating a series of regression models indicated that the effects of neighborhood disorder on crime among black youth were partially mediated by an individual's religious involvement (measured by the frequency of attending religious services) and that the involvement of black youth in religious institutions significantly buffered or interacted with the effects of neighborhood disorder on crime and on serious crime in particular. Theoretical and methodological implications of the study findings are briefly discussed. An appendix contains descriptive statistics on variables and items used in the analysis. 53 references, 3 tables, and 2 figures