Making a Difference: The Impact of Traditional Male Role Models on Drug Sale Activity and Violence Involving Black Urban Youth

• NCJ Number: 229082
• Journal: Journal of Drug Issues Volume: 39 Issue: 3 Dated: Summer 2009 Pages: 715-740
• Author(s): Karen F. Parker; Scott R.. Maggard
• Date Published: 2009
• Length: 26 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Drawing on Elijah Anderson's ethnographic account of a disadvantaged urban environment where residents experience poverty and racial residential isolation ("Code of the Street"), the current study assessed the prevalence of male role models (older, employed Black males) and the concentration of urban disadvantage on Black juvenile drug sales and arrests for violence across multiple U.S. cities in 2000.

Abstract

The study found that although positive Black male roles models who were employed and committed to the welfare of their families were linked to reduced arrest rates for violence among African-American youth living in urban environments, the number of these men was significantly limited, and their roles were greatly undermined by reduced economic opportunities and racial inequalities in urban environments. Traditional male role models for earning a living and making positive social commitments were too few and too limited to dissuade urban Black youth from participation in the lucrative drug trade and associated violence. Anderson's arguments based on a Philadelphia urban community were found by the current study to have general application across other U.S. urban communities. The unit of analysis was U.S. cities with a population of 100,000 residents or more in the year 2000 that reported complete data on the study's dependent variables. This sampling criterion resulted in 199 cities for the sample. For the dependent variables, data were Uniform Crime Report arrest counts obtained from Chilton and Weber (2000). For the predictors, the 2000 Census of Population: Social and Economic Characteristics was the primary data source. The third source of data was the Bureau of Justice Statistics' Census of State and Federal Adult Correctional Facilities (2000). This was the primary source of information on race-specific incarceration. Independent variables related to poverty, income inequality, single-parent families, and racial residential segregation. 2 tables, 5 notes, 76 references, and appended means and standard deviations of independent variables and predictors