Relations between neighborhood factors, parenting behaviors, peer deviance, and delinquency among serious juvenile offenders.

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Abstract
The present study examined relations among neighborhood structural and social characteristics, parenting practices, peer group affiliations, and delinquency among a group of serious adolescent offenders. The sample of 14-18-year-old boys (N=488) was composed primarily of economically disadvantaged, ethnic-minority youth living in urban communities. The results indicate that weak neighborhood social organization is indirectly related to delinquency through its associations with parenting behavior and peer deviance and that a focus on just 1 of these microsystems can lead to oversimplified models of risk for juvenile offending. The authors also find that community social ties may confer both pro- and antisocial influences to youth, and they advocate for a broad conceptualization of neighborhood social processes as these relate to developmental risk for youth living in disadvantaged communities.
Funding Information
  • Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (2000-MU-MU-0007)
  • National Institute of Justice (1999-IF-CX-0053)
  • John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
  • William T. Grant Foundation
  • Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
  • Centers for Disease Control
  • William Penn Foundation
  • Arizona Governors' Justice Commission
  • Pennsylvania Commision on Crime and Delinquency

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