Violence and Childhood in the Inner City

348 Pages·1997·5.5 MB·English

by  Joan McCord

The contributors to this book believe that something can be done to make
life in American cities safer, to make growing up in the urban centers less
risky, and to reduce the violence that so often permeates urban childhoods.
They consider why there is so much violence, why some people become
violent and others do not, and why violence varies among areas. Biological
and psychologkal characteristics of individuals are considered, as well as
how the urban environment, especially the street culture, affects childhood
development. The authors review a variety of intervention strategics, con­
sidering when it would be appropriate to use them. Drawing upon ethno­
graphic commentary, laboratory experiments, historical reviews, and program
descriptions, the authors present multiple opinions on the causes of urban
violence and the changes necessary to reduce it.
Cambridge Criminology Series
Editors
Alfred Blumstein, Carnegie Mellon University
David Farrington, University of Cambridge
This series publishes high-quality research monographs of either
theoretical or empirical emphasis in all areas of criminology, including
measurement of offending, explanations of offending, police courts,
incapacitation, corrections, sentencing, deterrence, rehabilitation, and
other related topics. It is intended to be both interdisciplinary and
international in scope.
Other titles in the series:
Scott H. Decker and Barrik Van Winkle, Life in the Gang: Family, Friends,
and Violn1ce
John Hagan and Bill McCarthy, Mean Streets: Youth Crime and Home/,essness
J. David Hawkins (editor), Delinquency and Crime: Current Theories
Austin Lovegrove, The Framework ofJ udicial Sentencing: A Study in Legal
Decision Making
Simon I. Singer, Recriminalizing Delinquency: Vioumt Juvenile Crime and
juvenile.Justice Reform
VioleanncdCe h ildhothoedI nneCri ty
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by
Edited
Joan McCord
Temple University
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Contents
List of Contributors page vi
Preface ix
I Violence and the Inner-City Street Code
ELIJAH ANDERSON
2 The Embeddedness of Child and Adolescent Development:
A Community-Level Perspective on Urban Violence 31
ROBERT J. SAMPSON
3 Placing American Urban Violence in Context 78
JOAN MCCORD
4 Neuropsychology, Antisocial Behavior, and Neighborhood
Context 116
TERRIE E. MOFFITT
5 Psychological Mediators of Violence in Urban Youth 171
RONALD G. SLABY
6 Understanding and Preventing Child Abuse
in Urban Settings 207
FELTON EARLS AND JACQUELINE BARNES
7 Intervening to Prevent Childhood Aggression
in the Inner City 256
NANCY G. GUERRA
Name Index 313
Subject Index 322
v
Contributors
Elijah Anderson is the Charles and William L. Day Professor of the Social
Sciences and Professor of Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania. He is
the author of the highly regarded sociological work, A Place on the Comer: A
Study of Black Street Comer Men ( 1978), and for his recently published
ethnographic study, Streetwise: Rare, Class and Change in an Urban Community
( 1990), he was honored with the Robert E. Park Award of the American
Sociological Association. His newest book, The Code of the Streets, will be
published by W. W. Norton. Professor Anderson was a member of the
National Research Council's Panel on the Understanding and Control of
Violent Behavior, which published its report in 1993.
Jacqueline Barnes has a Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from the
University of London, where she studied the influences of gender on
parent-child interactions in the preschool years. She has since worked in
London and at Harvard University. Her research interests include: identifi­
cation and management of behavior problems of preschool children in
group settings; methods for assessing parental behavior; the influence of
coercive family interactions; and evaluation of child mental health and
child abuse prevention programs.
Felton Earls is Professor of Human Behavior and Development at the
Harvard School of Public Health and Professor of Child Psychiatry at
the Harvard Medical School. He has conducted psychiatric epidemiological
research on children and adolescents in many societies around the
world, and is currently principal investigator of a landmark study, The
Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods. This project
is studying the multiple influences of neighborhood, school, and family
contexts on the development of antisocial behavior in children and
adolescents.
VI
CONTRIBUTORS vii
Nancy G. Guerra is Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of
Illinois at Chicago. She has published widely in psychology journals on
violence prevention and child development. She is a member of the
President's Coordinating Council of Juvenile Justice, and is the principal
investigator on a large-scale prevention research grant funded by the Na­
tional Institute of Mental Health.
Joan McCord is Professor of Criminal Justice at Temple University. Past
President of the American Society of Criminology, she has received the Prix
Emile Durkheim from the International Society of Criminology (1993) and
the Edwin H. Sutherland Award from the American Society of Criminology
(1 994) for her contributions to research. She has authored numerous
articles on the causes of crime, intervention programs, and theory to pro­
fessional books and journals.
Terrie E. Moffitt is Professor of Psychology at the University ofWisconsin­
Madison, Professor of Social Behavior and Development at the Social,
Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Research Centre of the Institute of
Psychiatry in London, England, and Associate Director of the Dunedin
Multidisciplinary Health and Development Research Unit in New Zealand.
She studies the natural history of antisocial behavior across the life course
from early childhood to mid-life.
Robert J. Sampson is Professor of Sociology at the University of Chicago
and Research Fellow at the American Bar Foundation. His most recent
book, written with John Laub, Crime in the Making: Pathways and Turning
Points Through Life ( 1993), received the outstanding book award from the
American Society of Criminology, the Academy of Criminal Justice Sci­
ences, and the Crime, Law and Deviance Section of the American Socio­
logical Association.
Ronald G. Slaby is Lecturer on Education and Pediatrics at Harvard U niver­
sity and a Senior Scientist at Education Development Center. A develop­
mental psychologist, Dr. Slaby has coauthored a national plan for
preventing violence in America for the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention and a national report on violence and youth for the American
Psychological Association. His books include: Early Violence Prevention; Ag­
gressors, Victims, and Bystander.>, Viewpoints; and Social DevelofJment in Young
Children.

Prefa ce
When Isaac Fulwood, Jr., resigned from the office of Chief of Police for the
District of Columbia, he did so saying, "I want a sense that if my wife walks
out into the yard, nobody's going to run into the yard and kill her. When
she goes to the store, I don't want people to take her car. Fear is greater
than the crime itself, because it changes everything" (quoted in the New
York Times, Sept. 20, 1992, section 4, p. 7). Chief Fulwood was particularly
troubled by the callousness represented in one young man's claim that he
killed because his victim "deserved to die," and in another's because he felt
like "busting somebody."
The Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation brought together the au­
thors of this book. We are people who believe that something can be done
to make life in cities safer, to make growing up in cities less risky, and to
reduce the violence that so often permeates urban childhood. Under the
auspices of Karen Colvard and JoelW allman, we met to present our ideas
and defend or change them in the light of criticisms from our colleagues.
A� editor, I pushed to have the chapters present the strongest case possible
for whatever points of view their authors chose to take. A� a group, we
committed ourselves to the task of trying to make a difference in the
direction of reducing violence.
We present evidence suggesting why American cities have so much
violence, why some people rather than others become violent, and why
violence tends to occur in some places rather than in others. The authors,
too, describe ways to reduce crime and violence. Chapters draw upon a
variety of methods, including ethnographic commentary and laboratory
experiments, historical reviews, and program descriptions. Although we do
not completely agree about the causes of urban violence, we present a
coherent image.
The shared image is one that sees violent crimes in urban ghettos as
IX
x PREFACE
partly a response to policies and practices originating outside the ghettos.
A reduction in violence, we believe, will occur only when public policies
and practices match the rhetoric of a commitment to equal opportunities.
The first three chapters set urban violence into social and historical
contexts. Elijah Anderson takes a microscope to urban ghetto cultures.
Betrayed by and therefore distrustful of the judicial system and its represen­
tatives, he argues, many of those who live in inner cities create their own
order, defend their own loved ones, and establish their own codes. In
spelling out the code of the streets, Anderson shows how the willingness to
use violence preserves an ordering in which respect supplies rewards.
Anderson explains why parents who want their children to have nothing
to do with "street culture" nonetheless must instill in them one of its
characteristics - the willingness to be violent. Tellingly, he suggests that
respect, including self�respect, on the street requires showing nerve, and he
states that nerve "is shown when someone takes a person's possessions (the
more valuable, the better), messes with someone's woman, throws the first
punch, gets in someone's face, or pulls a trigger." Anderson places respon­
sibility for violence in the cities -at least in part-on those outside the cities
whose policies of indifference (or contempt) have led blacks, particularly
black males, to express contempt for mainstream society. Anderson urges
mainstream Americans to give the disadvantaged poor a stake in the system.
In the next chapter, Robertj. Sampson picks up the theme established
by Anderson. Sampson illustrates the ways in which a healthy social context
provides a type of capital upon which children can depend. Social capital,
Sampson argues, helps to establish norms that can be enforced. Sampson's
"contextual perspective" solves the seeming paradox that fatherless families
do not produce more criminals than their two-parent neighbors -although
high crime rates are found in areas having many fatherless families. He
provides a basis for understanding why violence is sometimes seen as a way
of life in inner-city ghetto neighborhoods, even though a majority of resi­
dents may disapprove of the violence. Like Anderson, Sampson argues that
ghetto life reflects distrust of mainstream values.
Sampson focuses on links that tie individuals to their communities
through family socialization practices. He shows that healthful child devel­
opment, which is related to neighborhood structure, has an important
place in crime prevention.
Sampson points to many ways in which racial discrimination has had
deleterious effects. He notes the "deliberate policy decisions to concentrate
minorities and the poor in public housing," and he reminds readers that
explanations for crime that focus on individuals' characteristics may be