View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Scholar Commons | University of South Florida Research University of South Florida Scholar Commons Graduate Theses and Dissertations Graduate School 2011 Assessing racial differences in offending trajectories: A life-course view of the race-crime relationship Michael S. Caudy University of South Florida, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd Part of the American Studies Commons, and the Criminology and Criminal Justice Commons Scholar Commons Citation Caudy, Michael S., "Assessing racial differences in offending trajectories: A life-course view of the race-crime relationship" (2011). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/3037 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Assessing racial differences in offending trajectories: A life-course view of the race-crime relationship by Michael S. Caudy A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Criminology College of Behavioral and Community Sciences University of South Florida Co-Major Professor: Michael J. Lynch, Ph.D. Co-Major Professor: Ojmarrh Mitchell, Ph.D. Wesley G. Jennings, Ph. D. Michael J. Leiber, Ph.D. Thomas A. Loughran, Ph.D. Date of Approval: October 20, 2011 Keywords: Race, Ethnicity, Life-course theory, Developmental trajectories, Risk factors Copyright © 2011, Michael S. Caudy i Table of Contents List of Tables............................................. ........................................................................ iv List of Figures............................................... ..................................................................... vi Abstract......................................................... .................................................................... vii Chapter 1: Introduction ........................................................................................................1 The Age Crime Relationship and Developmental Life-Course Criminology .......................................................................................................5 Race and DLC ........................................................................................................12 The Current Study ..................................................................................................16 Chapter 2: The Relationship between Race and Crime .....................................................19 Defining Race ........................................................................................................20 Official Crime Statistics .........................................................................................21 Non-Official Data ..................................................................................................24 Differential validity of self-report data ......................................................27 Explanations of Differential Arrest Rates ..............................................................30 Race and Criminological Theory ...........................................................................33 Conclusion.............. ...............................................................................................36 Chapter 3: Theoretical Framework ....................................................................................37 Gottfredson and Hirschi’s General Theory of Crime ............................................37 Empirical status ..........................................................................................40 Explaining racial and ethnic differences ....................................................41 Theoretical critiques...................................................................................43 Summary ....................................................................................................44 Sampson and Laub’s Age-Graded Theory of Informal Social Control .................45 Empirical status ..........................................................................................48 Causes of delinquency ...................................................................49 Stability and change in offending ..................................................50 Explaining racial and ethnic differences ....................................................50 Theoretical critiques...................................................................................52 Summary ....................................................................................................55 Moffitt’s Developmental Taxonomy of Antisocial Behavior ................................56 Empirical status ..........................................................................................61 Explaining racial and ethnic differences ....................................................62 Theoretical critiques...................................................................................66 Summary ....................................................................................................68 ii Explaining Offending over the Life-Course across Race and Ethnicity ................68 Chapter 4: Review of Relevant Literature .........................................................................73 Developmental Trajectories of Offending .............................................................72 Distinguishing Offending Trajectories ..................................................................75 Generality of risk factors across subgroups ...............................................79 Racial Differences in Offending Trajectories ........................................................81 Foundations of the Current Study ..........................................................................86 Chapter 5: Methods........ ....................................................................................................89 Hypotheses......... ....................................................................................................89 Data.................... ....................................................................................................92 Measures....................... .........................................................................................96 Dependent variable ....................................................................................96 Independent variables ................................................................................97 Demographics ................................................................................98 Individual factors ...........................................................................98 Family factors ..............................................................................101 Peers .............................................................................................102 Structural factors ..........................................................................103 Analytic Strategy .................................................................................................106 Identification of developmental trajectories ............................................108 The SPGM process ......................................................................109 Relevant SPGM formulas ............................................................111 Estimation of trajectories in the current study .............................113 Chapter 6: Results................ ............................................................................................115 Prevalence of Self-Reported Offending ...............................................................115 Frequency of self-reported offending ......................................................116 Mean Differences in Risk and Protective Factors across Race and Ethnicity............ .............................................................................................118 Trajectory Estimations .........................................................................................120 Model selection ........................................................................................120 Self-Reported Offending Trajectories..................................................................121 Full sample ...............................................................................................121 White sample ...........................................................................................124 Black sample ............................................................................................126 Hispanic sample .......................................................................................129 Frequency of offending across trajectory groups.....................................132 Mean Differences in Risk and Protective Factors across Trajectory Groups ......135 Full sample ...............................................................................................135 White sample ...........................................................................................138 Black sample ............................................................................................139