The author(s) shown below used Federal funds provided by the U.S. Department of Justice and prepared the following final report: Document Title: Don’t Forget the Women: A Multi-Level Analysis of Individual and Contextual Effects on Girls’ and Boys’ Delinquency Author(s): Dana Peterson Document No.: 197352 Date Received: November 14, 2002 Award Number: 2001-IJ-CX-0009 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. “DON’T FORGET THE WOMEN”: I A MULTI-LEVEL ANALYSIS OF INDIVIDUAL AND CONTEXTUAL EFFECTS ON GIRLS’ AND BOYS’ DELINQUENCY bY i I Dana Peterson A DISSERTATION Presented to the Faculty of The Graduate College at the University of Nebraska In Partial Fulfillment of Requirements Under the Supervision of Drs. Fiun-Aage Esbensen and Julie Homey Omaha, Nebraska May, 2002 PROPERTY OF National Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRSfI :..:-.- Box 6000 /--. - _._I .. Rockville, MD 20849-60001 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. DISSERTATION TITLE “Don’t Forget the Women”: A Multi-level Analvsis of Individual and Contextual Effectson Girls’ and Boys’ Dehauency BY Dana Peterson SUPERVISORY COMMITTEE: A- b\ d b\ signahre Finn-&e Esbensen TypedName J&e Homey U TypedName Dennis W. Roncek TypedName Signature Helen Moore TypedNamc SigMtUE Typed Name University of Nebraska at Omaha Graduate College 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. "DON'T FORGET THE WOMEN": A MULTI-LEVEL ANALYSIS OF INDIVIDUAL AND CONTEXTUAL EFFECTS ON BOYS' DELINQUENCY GIRLS' AND, Dana Peterson, Ph.D. University of Nebraska, 2002 Advisors: Finn-Aage Esbensen and Julie Horney Social disorganization theorists have long maintained that societal context is important in understanding crime and delinquency. Research has supported this assertion and offered evidence that neighborhood-level influences have not only direct, but indirect effects on individual delinquency, through more proximal spheres such as the My, school, and peer group. Little research has been conducted, however, to determine whether these factors have differential effects on girls and boys' delinquency. Some feminist scholars argue that "traditional" criminological theories cannot adequately explain females' delinquency, while other scholars assert a gender-neutral fiamework. I examined these issues by testing a cross-level integrated theoretical model, combining ecological and feminist perspectives with concepts drawn fiom social control and social learning theories. Of particular interest was whether the integrated model was usell in predicting serious delinquency and whether it operated in similar or different fashion for girls and boys. Individual-level data fiom 1,536 middle-school students in six U.S. cities were combined with census tract data fiom students' home addresses, and HLM techniques were used to analyze these multi-level relationships. 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 five census-derived variables (mobility, unit density, overcrowding, I educatiodoccupation,and concentrated disadvantage), only overcrowding had main and direct effects on individuals’ delinquency. The individual-level theoretical factors (parental attachment and monitoring, school commitment, guilt, and delinquent peer I association) were not found to mediate the effects of neighborhood-level hctors, but I several of these variables directly innuenced delinquency. ,Noneof the interaction terms between sex and the individual-levelvariables was sigdicant, lending support for a gender-neutral explanation of serious offending for this age group. Residential mobility and unit density, however, did interact signiscantlywith sex, suggesting that the relationship between these variables and serious delinquency is moderated by sex. Limitations of this research and recommendations for fbture research are included. In addition, the relevance of the findings for policy-malung, particularly as they pertain to gender-specific youth programming, is discussed. 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. FUNDING SOURCES AND DISCLAIMER I This research was supported by grants, fellowships, andor scholarships fi-om the following agencies: National Institute of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice (National Evaluation of G.R.E.A.T. grant 94-IJ-CX-0058;and Graduate Research Fellowship 2001-IJ-CX-0009) and the University of Nebraska at Omaha (Spring 2001 Graduate Dissertation Scholarship). Points of view in this dissertation are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the official position of the U.S. Department of Justice or the University of Nebraska at Omaha. 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. TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page Forward I 1 Chapter One: Introduction 3 Integrated Theories 5 Females and Traditional Delinquency Theories 6 Examination of Individual and Contextual Effects: Multi-level, Multi- 8 site Analyses Project Significance and Contribution 11 Chapter Two: Integrated Theories 14 Types of Integration 17 Cross-Level Integration 18 Contriiutions of Integrated Models 19 Limitations of Research on Integrated Models 24 Proposed Theoretical Model 25 Figure 2.1. Winfi-ee, Esbensen, and Osgood’s (1 996) Integrated 26 Theoretical Model Figure 2.2. Proposed Integrated Model 28 Chapter Three: Review of Theoretical Components and Related Literature 30 Toward a Feminist Approach 30 Historical treatment of females 31 Feminist theory 32 Ecological Perspective 36 Ecological theory research 41 Elaborating ecological theory 43 Contextual effects and sex differences in delinquency 49 “Don’t Forget the Women”: Females’ Inclusion in Delinquency 51 Research Social Control Theory 51 Self-control theory 53 Power-control theory 54 Relevant research 55 Social Learning Theory 62 Relevant research 63 summary 67 Full Proposed Integrated Model 68 Figure 3.1. Full Proposed Integrated Model 70 Hypothesis 1 71 Hypothesis 2 71 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. Hypothesis 3 72 Hypothesis 4 76 Hypothesis 5 78 Chapter Four: Research Design and Analysis Strategy 81 G.R.E.A.T. Longitudinal Research Design 82 Site selection and sampling procedures 82 Active consent process Panel attrition 8583 i Instrument and procedure 88 Reliability and validity of the self-report method 89 The Current Study 91 Census data 91 Geocoding process 93 Table 4.1. Geocoding Results 95 Current Sample 96 Table 4.2. Demographic Differences between Dissertation and 97 Excluded Samples Table 4.3. t-Test of Means Comparisons between Dissertation 98 and Excluded Samples Measures 99 Level- 1 (individual-level) variables 99 Demographics 100 Social control variables 100 Social learning variables 1 02 Other statistical controls 103 Dependent variable: Serious delinquency 104 Level-2 (census-tract level) variables 107 Table 4.4. Factor Analysis of Census Variables: Variance 108 Explained Table 4.5. Factor Analysis of Census Variables: Factor 109 Loadmgs Hierarchical Linear Modeling 111 General equations in HLM 112 Centering 114 Mediating effects in HLM 115 Mytical Plan 117 Chapter Five: Findings 119 Respondent Characteristics 119 Table 5.1. Individual Respondent Sample Characteristics 120 Table 5.2. t-Test of Means Comparisons by Sex on Independent 121 and Dependent Variables 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. Table 5.3. Comparisons by Sex of Individual Delinquency Items, 122 Time 1 and Time 2 Census Tract Characteristics 124 Table 5.4. Census Tract Characteristics 125 Table 5.5. Census Tract Characteristics by Site