Live Fast, Die Young: Anticipated Early Death and Adolescent Violence and Gang Involvement Author(S): Arna L
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The author(s) shown below used Federal funding provided by the U.S. Department of Justice to prepare the following resource: Document Title: Live Fast, Die Young: Anticipated Early Death and Adolescent Violence and Gang Involvement Author(s): Arna L. Carlock Document Number: 250425 Date Received: December 2016 Award Number: 2014-IJ-CX-0014 This resource has not been published by the U.S. Department of Justice. This resource is being made publically available through the Office of Justice Programs’ National Criminal Justice Reference Service. 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. L ive Fast, Die Young: Anticipated Early Death and Adolescent Violence and Gang Involvement by Arna L. Carlock A Dissertation Submitted to the University at Albany, State University of New York in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Criminal Justice 2016 This resource was prepared by the author(s) using Federal funds provided by the U.S. Department of Justice. 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 L ive Fast, Die Young: Anticipated Early Death and Adolescent Violence and Gang Involvement by Arna L. Carlock COPYRIGHT 2016 This resource was prepared by the author(s) using Federal funds provided by the U.S. Department of Justice. 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 Abstract Strategies employed by criminal justice agencies to reduce offending often focus on deterrence, with policies relying on the threat of punishment to discourage individuals from crime. However, such strategies will fail if individuals do not fear these consequences, or when potential rewards of offending outweigh the risks. According to life history theory, adolescents with a dangerous or unpredictable childhood environment discount the future and engage in risky behaviors because they have little to lose. Many adolescents embody this “live fast, die young” mentality, particularly those already at risk of delinquency due to other factors. The scientific literature refers to this mindset as fatalism, future discounting, or anticipated early death (AED). Despite the indication that AED is a crucial correlate of delinquent activity, only recently have criminologists begun to directly examine the relationship. To address this gap in the literature, this dissertation analyzes two longitudinal datasets. One dataset, the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), offers a nationally representative sample, while the Rochester Youth Development Study (RYDS) provides a sample of at-risk youth in Rochester, New York. Structural equation modeling quantifies adolescent AED in each dataset. The use of two data sources strengthens the reliability and validity of the latent variable’s measurement. I study the effects of the latent AED measures on adolescent violence and gang activity, finding that higher levels of AED correspond to a greater likelihood of violence and gang activity, with the relationships often mediated by low self-control. In an attempt to determine the causal ordering of AED and risk-taking behaviors, I exploit the longitudinal nature of the RYDS data by estimating autoregressive cross-lagged panel models. Findings lend support to life history theory’s assumption that AED predicts risk-taking behavior; I find little evidence that violence or gang activity cause AED. i ii This resource was prepared by the author(s) using Federal funds provided by the U.S. Department of Justice. 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 Acknowledgments � To avoid making this list of those to whom I owe gratitude overly long, I will instead make it grievously short: Thank you to the family, friends, and faculty who have supported me along the way. Funding Acknowledgments This dissertation was supported by the National Institute of Justice Graduate Research Fellowship 2014-IJ-CX-0008 and the University at Albany Initiatives for Women. This research uses data from Add Health, a program project directed by Kathleen Mullan Harris and designed by J. Richard Udry, Peter S. Bearman, and Kathleen Mullan Harris at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and funded by grant P01-HD31921 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, with cooperative funding from 23 other federal agencies and foundations. Special acknowledgment is due Ronald R. Rindfuss and Barbara Entwisle for assistance in the original design. Information on how to obtain the Add Health data files is available on the Add Health website (http://www.cpc.unc.edu/addhealth). No direct support was received from grant P01-HD31921 for this analysis. This research also uses data from the Rochester Youth Development Study (RYDS). Support for the Rochester Youth Development Study has been provided by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (86-JN-CX-0007), the National Institute on Drug Abuse (R01DA005512), and the National Science Foundation (SBR-9123299). Work on this project was also aided by grants to the Center for Social and Demographic Analysis at the University at Albany from NICHD (P30HD32041) and NSF (SBR-9512290). Points of view or opinions in this document are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the funding agencies. i v This resource was prepared by the author(s) using Federal funds provided by the U.S. Department of Justice. 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 TABLE OF CONTENTS � List of Figures......................................................................................................................... ix � List of Tables ........................................................................................................................... x � CHAPTER 1.................................................................................................................................. 1 � Introduction............................................................................................................................. 1 � CHAPTER 2.................................................................................................................................. 4 � Theoretical Framework and Literature Review .................................................................. 4 � Life History Theory and Future Discounting...................................................................... 4 Review of the Literature ..................................................................................................... 9 Anticipated early death. ................................................................................................ 9 Gangs and violence..................................................................................................... 21 Self-control. ................................................................................................................ 26 Current Study.................................................................................................................... 28 Theoretical Model............................................................................................................. 30 CHAPTER 3................................................................................................................................ 38 � Methods.................................................................................................................................. 38 � Data and Samples.............................................................................................................. 38 The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). ..................... 38 The Rochester Youth Development Study (RYDS). .................................................. 40 Analytical Approach ......................................................................................................... 41 Objective 1: Operationalize a quantifiable measure of AED...................................... 41 Objective 2: Examine the impact of AED on individual violence and gang activity. 44 Objective 3: Determine the causal ordering of AED and delinquent risk-taking behaviors (i.e., violence and gang activity). ............................................................... 45 v This resource was prepared by the author(s) using Federal funds provided by the U.S. Department of Justice. 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 Observed Variables........................................................................................................... 47 Missing Data and Structural Equation Modeling.............................................................. 53 Available case analysis with robust weighted least squares. ...................................... 54 Summary..........................................................................................................................