The Effects of Father Absence and Father Alternatives on Female and Male Rates of Violence
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The author(s) shown below used Federal funds provided by the U.S. Department of Justice and prepared the following final report: Document Title: The Effect of Father Absence and Father Alternatives on Female and Male Rates of Violence Author(s): Jennifer Schwartz Document No.: 206316 Date Received: July 2004 Award Number: 2002-IJ-CX-0025 This report has not been published by the U.S. Department of Justice. To provide better customer service, NCJRS has made this Federally- funded grant final report available electronically in addition to traditional paper copies. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School College of the Liberal Arts THE EFFECT OF FATHER ABSENCE AND FATHER ALTERNATIVES ON FEMALE AND MALE RATES OF VIOLENCE A Thesis in Sociology by Jennifer Schwartz copyright 2003 Jennifer Schwartz Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy August 2003 This document is a research report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice. This report has not been published by the Department. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. Supported Under Award # 1 ) . from the National Institute of Justice Programs. Points of view in this document are those of the authors and do not necessarily represents the official position of the US. Department of Justice. The disappearance of family-centered males from commu/72* ties ;has generated considerable concern among policymakers and criminologists alike since past research on the family structure of a community has revealed father absence to be a consistent and potent predictor of variation in levels of violence across ecological contexts. However, it is unclear why father absence is problematic (e.g., poor supervision, economic hardship, lack of role models). Also at issue is whether alternatives to resident fathers and husbands - such as older males referred to as "old heads" and co-resident grandparents - can mitigate some of the negative effects of father absence on community levels of violence. Attention to gender is particularly important to this issue of family structure and community violence since, both historically and more recently, there is considerable debate regarding whether family-related variables, and macro-structural predictors more generally, are of more consequence to female or male offending or if they have a more global effect. Thus, the following research questions are posed: 1) Does father absence affect female and male rates of violence similarly? 2) Do the effects of father absence persist for both females and males once structural disadvantage and neighborhood guardianship structures are taken into account? 3) Do alternatives to resident fathers, namely old heads and co-resident grandparents, mitigate the negative effects of father absence on female and male violence rates? and 4) To what extent do changes in father absence drive trends in female and male levels of violence? County-level data from the UCR and the Census Bureau are utilized with seemingly unrelated regression techniques and longitudinal This document is a research report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice. This report has not been published by the Department. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. hierarchical models to address these issues. Father absence has a strong and significant effect on both female and male levels of violence across the three types of violence examined. Furthermore, the effects of father absence are not differentiated by gender. Though both structural disadvantage and supervisory structures influence community violence rates, the effects of father absence persist even after taking these factors into consideration. The presence of other males in the community and co-resident grandparents does mitigate some of the negative effects of father absence, especially in areas where father absence is particularly acute. The buffering effect of old heads is largely confined to homicide whereas the presence of co- resident grandparents is effective across violent offenses. Results are not differentiated by gender. Changes over time in the level of father absence in a community significantly predict changes in female and male rates of violence, at least for homicide and robbery. This document is a research report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice. This report has not been published by the Department. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. SUMMARIES Over the past several decades, there has been a marked increase in the share of families with absent fathers and husbands. For example, the percentage of children living without a father more than tripled, from 12 percent in 1960 to almost 40 percent in 1995 (McLanahan 1997). This decline of resident fatherhood has generated considerable concern among policymakers as much evidence indicates deleterious social consequences of this trend. At the individual-level, children from father-absent homes tend to manifest more behavioral problems including fighting and physical aggression (McLanahan 1997). Further, the two-adult family form has been demonstrated to insulate its adult members from involvement in violence as well (e.g., Wan: 1993). Policymakers are concerned that the increase in non-traditional family forms is indicative of a loss of community and social capital. The family institution has been identified as a source of community functioning and stability that forms a barrier against violence. Further, a community's family structure is indicative of its ability to effectively socialize residents, exert informal social control, and garner social capital and resources that buffer against violence (Biblarz and Raferty 1999). Compatible with this concern, at the community-level, "family disorganization" has emerged across a number of contemporary studies as one of the most potent and consistent predictors of community variation in levels of adult (and juvenile) violence (Blau and Blau 1982; Sampson 1987; Land, McCall, and Cohen 1990; Shihadeh and Steffensmeier 1994). It seems that the scope of father absence helps to distinguish between communities in terms of level of violent offending but also there is realistic concern that trends in father absence may have important consequences for trends in violence. This document is a research report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice. This report has not been published by the Department. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. Though it is clear from previous research that the family structure of a community impacts its ability to resist violence, it is unclear exactly why widespread father absence is problematic. Some scholars suggest that father absence is problematic because it signals weak social control via poor supervision and decreased guardianship over public areas, allowing interpersonal conflicts to escalate to criminal violence. Others assert that father absence is merely a proxy for economic disadvantage and emphasize the lack of social capital and resources in areas deficient in family-centered men. Additionally, fathers collectively perform important socialization fbnctions within communities, acting as role models and applying social stigma to enforce community norms. However, the dynamics of the relationship between father absence, social control, structural disadvantage, and socialization has rarely been examined at the community-level within the criminological literature. Given the important roles within communities that fathers play such that pervasive father absence leads to high levels of violence, family sociologists and some criminologists have suggested that the presence of other types of adults might together be able to substitute for resident fathers and be able to mitigate some of the negative effects of father absence. For example, Steffensmeier and Harer (1999) identify a relatively recent shift in the nation's collective conscience, such that the aging cohort of baby boomers exert a moral influence over communities as well as a greater willingness to intervene for the common good. More specifically, Anderson (1990) identifies the presence of "old heads" within a community as powerful agents of socialization and social control for young adults. In fact Anderson even suggests that the old head "acted as surrogate father to those who needed.. .moral support" (3). Additionally, the presence This document is a research report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice. This report has not been published by the Department. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. of these hard-working, family-centered males might bring resources and social capital to localities that would benefit the community as a whole. The female counterpart, sometimes identified as "othermothers" or community mothers, is also integral to a community's