This article examines whether weapon carrying influences the frequency and variety of violent, property, and drug delinquency adolescents commit through fixed-effects analyses of data from the Rochester Youth Development Study (RYDS). We conclude that weapon carrying contributes to violent, substance, and property delinquency, and delinquent behaviors learned during weapon carrying continue to affect substance and property delinquency long after carrying has ceased.

Building on previous research, this article investigates whether discrepancies between official and self-reported measures of arrests as an adult can be predicted from such discrepancies as an adolescent. We use longitudinal data from the Rochester Youth Development Study to assess whether a pattern exists in adolescent and adult under-and over-reporting of arrests. We find consistency in under-and over-reporting throughout the adolescent-young adult life course. In other words, when respondents misreport the number of arrests they have experienced, they do so consistently regardless of age. This is reassuring for scholars using self-report data, as under-and overreporting behaviors remain stable over this span of the life course. Finally, our models predicting discrepancies in official and self-reported arrests during the combined period of adolescence and young adulthood are both extremely strong. Our findings support the continued use of self-report measures as a valid indicator of delinquency.

Youths’ exposure to community violence increases their risk for harmful emotional and behavioral outcomes. Several family management strategies protect youth against exposure though there is scant literature exploring whether their application is gendered. Using data from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods, we draw from power-control theory to assess gender differences in family management strategies and the extent to which this accounts for boys’ greater exposure to neighborhood violence. Controlling for neighborhood contextual factors and youth covariates of exposure to violence, findings suggest that parents adopt gendered parenting practices, which in turn helps clarify why boys are more likely to report exposure to community violence.

This study measures the influence multiple incarcerations and age at first incarceration have on the lengths of time ex-inmates are not employed and the amount of time ex-inmates spend looking for employment. Fixed effects analyses of longitudinal data from the Rochester Youth Development Study (RYDS) finds a relationship between incarceration at younger ages and longer non-employment experiences, but no association between incarcerations between 23 – 32 years old and non-employment lengths. Meanwhile, these individuals who experience incarceration younger spend equivalent time looking for employment as their never-incarcerated peers, despite having nonequivalent periods without employment.

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