Compounded Risk: The Implications for Delinquency of Coming from a Poor Family that Lives in a Poor Community

Journal of Youth and Adolescence - Tập 36 - Trang 593-605 - 2007
Carter Hay1, Edward N. Fortson2, Dusten R. Hollist3, Irshad Altheimer4, Lonnie M. Schaible5
1College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida State University, Tallahassee, USA
2Department of Sociology, Washington State University, Seattle, USA
3Department of Sociology, The University of Montana-Missoula, Missoula, USA
4Department of Criminal Justice, Wayne State University, Detroit, USA
5Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice, Eastern Washington University, Cheney, USA

Tóm tắt

The relationship between poverty and juvenile involvement in delinquency remains central to the study of adolescent development, but firm conclusions on this relationship have been elusive. The purpose of this study is to address an important limitation of prior research that often has been overlooked. This involves the standard practice of examining the poverty-delinquency relationship with an exclusive focus on the family's level of poverty. This study considers that the effects of family poverty on delinquency may significantly depend upon the level of poverty in the community in which the family lives. Specifically, drawing from a number of poverty-oriented theories of delinquency, we examine the hypothesis that community poverty amplifies the effects of family poverty, such that family poverty's effect becomes greater when community poverty also is high. Using data from a national sample of adolescents that are supplemented with U.S. census data, we find partial support for the idea that family poverty is consequential for delinquency, and that this is especially true for poor families that also live in poor communities.

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