Black Middle Class Delinquents

246 Pages·2009·0.742 MB·English

by  Connie R. Hassett-walker

Criminal Justice
Recent Scholarship

Edited by
Marilyn McShane and Frank P. Williams III

A Series from LFB Scholarly

Black Middle Class Delinquents

Connie R. Hassett-Walker

LFB Scholarly Publishing LLC
El Paso 2009
Copyright © 2009 by LFB Scholarly Publishing LLC

All rights reserved.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Hassett-Walker, Connie R., 1969-
Black middle class delinquents / Connie R. Hassett-Walker.
p. cm. -- (Criminal justice : recent scholarship)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-59332-342-4 (alk. paper)
1. African American juvenile delinquents. 2. Middle class--United
States.
I. Title.
HV9104.H34 2009
364.36086'220973--dc22
2009009865

ISBN 978-1-59332-342-4

Printed on acid-free 250-year-life paper.

Manufactured in the United States of America.
TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Tables vii
Acknowledgements xi
Chapter 1: Introduction 1
Chapter 2: Theoretical Framework 11
Chapter 3: The Black Middle Class and Crime 47
Chapter 4: Empirical Research on Class and Crime 63
Chapter 5: Data and Methodology 77
Chapter 6: Cross-Sectional Bivariate Results 115
Chapter 7: Cross-Sectional Multivariate Results for 129
Blacks
Chapter 8: Cross-Sectional Comparative 159
Multivariate Results
Chapter 9: Longitudinal Data and Analyses 193
Chapter 10: In Conclusion: A Call to Fellow 201
Criminologists
References 211
Index 229

v

LIST OF TABLES

Table 5.1 Focal Child-Primary Respondent Relationship 83
5.2 Descriptive Statistics 85
5.3 Correlations Between Pre- and Post- 87
Transformation Variables
5.4 Delinquency (dependent variable constituent 88
elements)
5.5 Delinquency 89
5.6 Class-Related Independent Variables 90
5.7 African Americans by Class Grouping 93
5.8 Gender and Age 93
5.9 Parenting Behavior 95
5.10 Parent-Child Relationship Difficulty 96
5.11 Parental Expectations for Children’s 97
Education
5.12 Youth’s Peer Relationships 98
5.13 Unemployment 100
5.14 Marital Disruption 100
5.15 Parental Social Capital 101
5.16 Residential Mobility 102
5.17 Local Poverty 104
5.18 Index of Black-White Exposure 105
5.19 Dependent and Independent Variable 106
Constructs’ Reliability, African Americans
5.20 Bivariate Correlations 107
5.21 Phi and Cramer’s V Statistics of the 110
Categorical Values
vii
viii List of Tables

Table 6.1 Distribution of Delinquency by African 116
American Youth
6.2 ANOVA, Blacks' Delinquency 117
6.3 ANOVA, Poverty, Blacks 119
6.4 ANOVA, Exposure, Blacks 120
6.5 Distribution of Delinquency by White Youth 121
6.6 Distribution of Delinquency by All Races 121
Youth
6.7 ANOVA, Delinquency, Whites 122
6.8 ANOVA, Delinquency, All Races 123
6.9 ANOVA, Poverty, Whites 124
6.10 ANOVA, Poverty, All Races 125
6.11 ANOVA, Exposure, Whites 127
6.12 ANOVA, Exposure, All Races 127
Table 7.1 Delinquency regressed on Class, Youth 130
Gender, and Youth Age
7.2 Delinquency regressed on the Class, Youth 132
Factor, and Parent-Child Interaction Variables
7.3 Delinquency regressed on the Class, Youth 134
Factor, and Parent-Child Interaction Variables
7.4 Delinquency regressed on the Class, Youth 136
Factor, Parent-Child Interaction, and Family
Context Variables
7.5 Delinquency regressed on the Class, Youth 139
Factor, Parent-Child Interaction, and Family
Context Variables
7.6 Full Model, Aggregated Black Youth 143
7.7 Full Model, Disaggregated Black Youth 145
7.8 Alternative Full Model 149
7.9 Any of Parent/Primary Respondent’s 151
Child(ren) Ever Have Trouble with the
Police?
7.10 Any of Parent/Primary Respondent’s 152
Child(ren) Ever Have Trouble with the
Police?
List of Tables ix

Table 8.1 Delinquency regressed on Class (SEI Score) 160
8.2 Delinquency regressed on Class (SEI Score 160
and ASSETS)
8.3 Delinquency regressed on Class, Youth 161
Gender, and Youth Age
8.4 Nearly Full Models, Aggregate Samples 164
8.5 Nearly Full Models, Disaggregated White 166
Youth
8.6 Nearly Full Models, Disaggregated All 169
Races Youth
8.7 The Full Aggregate Models 172
8.8 The Full Disaggregated Models, Whites 175
8.9 The Full Disaggregated Models, All Races 180
8.10 Any of the Parent/Primary Respondent's 183
Children Ever Have Trouble with the Police?
8.11 Comparative Logistic Regression: Any of 185
Parent/Primary Respondent’s Child(ren)
Ever Have Trouble with the Police?
8.12 Comparative Logistic Regression: Any of 188
Parent/Primary Respondent’s Child(ren)
Ever Have Trouble with the Police?
Table 9.1 Been arrested since 1997, Black Middle 196
Class Youth
9.2 Descriptive Statistics, Black Middle Class 197
Youth
9.3 Been Arrested since 1997? 198