Abstract
This chapter reviews recent research on neighborhood influences on children’s and adolescents’ antisocial behavior. Building on reviews in this area, we focus on recent developments pertaining to life course criminology. We have five main aims in this chapter. First, we engage General Strain Theory along with stress process perspectives to further theorize neighborhood structural and processual influences both in the short-term and dynamically over time. Second, we examine findings from cross-sectional research on neighborhood structure and process influences on a range of antisocial behaviors in both childhood and adolescence, considering direct and indirect links as well as moderating factors. Third, we use a life course criminology framework to examine antisocial behavior trajectories in the context of neighborhood residence. Studies in this area include results of both semi-parametric mixture models as well as hierarchical linear growth models of antisocial behavior trajectories. Fourth, we examine emerging research on neighborhood dynamics. Fifth, we consider research on the timing of neighborhood influences. We conclude with a summary of major findings and suggestions for future research on neighborhood influences on young people in life course criminology.
Keywords
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1 Neighborhood influences have been measured at different levels of analysis including census tracts, block groups, face-blocks as well as administrative areas including precincts. Neighborhood clusters have also been formed where relatively homogeneous census tracts have been combined (Sampson et al., 1997). Neighborhood structural features are often measured with U.S. Decennial data, while neighborhood processes are measured through a variety of measures including systematic social observations by researchers, community surveys, and respondent’s perceptions of neighborhoods (Leventhal et al., 2009). Most studies do not specify neighborhood boundaries when respondent perceptions are used (Leventhal & Brooks-Gunn).
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2 Neighborhoods have been studied through different research designs including data gathered for other purposes, neighborhood cluster studies, and relocation experiments (Fauth & Brooks-Gunn, 2008). Cross-sectional or longitudinal data with census data appended for measuring neighborhood effects were among the earlier studies of neighborhood influences on child outcomes, but have limitations for estimating these. Neighborhood cluster designs are specifically designed to study neighborhood influences by sampling children and families from neighborhoods in a longitudinal design (e.g., Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods [PHDCN] and the Los Angeles Families and Neighborhoods Study [L.A. FANS]). These studies permit reliable estimates of within and between neighborhood variance in child outcomes. Third, relocation experiments randomly select families residing in public housing in disadvantaged neighborhood and give them the opportunity to relocate to less poor neighborhoods (e.g., the Moving to Opportunity Demonstration [MTO]). Studies using each of these methods are included in this review.
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Foster, H., Brooks-Gunn, J. (2013). Neighborhood Influences on Antisocial Behavior During Childhood and Adolescence. In: Gibson, C., Krohn, M. (eds) Handbook of Life-Course Criminology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5113-6_5
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