African American Female Trajectories of Offending From Youth to Young Adulthood

Abstract

Using data from the Family and Community Health Survey, the current study explores developmental pathways from age 11 to 24 of African American males and females. This study describes the number and type of trajectories of offending for male and female African Americans, as much research in the past on trajectories has focused on White and/or male samples. We also investigate predictors of offending for the females both between and within trajectory groups. Results indicated that females who experienced higher levels of racial discrimination and greater parental hostility were more likely to be in a late bloomer group, compared with the low-level group. In addition, higher levels of racial discrimination and deviant peer affiliation were predictive of more offending.

A Longitudinal Test of a Feminist Pathways Model Among Black Youth: Incorporating Racial Discrimination and School Difficulties

“…Alternatively, only racial discrimination was a salient early risk for men—neither sexual abuse nor physical abuse was related directly or indirectly to crime among Black men. These results support previous work demonstrating that experiences of abuse are more likely to impact women’s than men’s offending (Belknap & Holsinger, 2006; Gehring, 2018; Watts, 2017) and research showing an impact of racial discrimination on crime for men and women (Burt et al, 2012; Evans et al, 2019).…”

“…This study is also among the first to incorporate both racial discrimination and school difficulties into a quantitative test of feminist pathways theory. The inclusion of each of these potential risks is important given work showing their close connection (Crenshaw et al, 2015;Morris, 2016;Unnever et al, 2016) as well as independent influences on crime (Evans et al, 2019;Watts, 2017). Others have discussed racial discrimination as a form of trauma (Henderson et al, 2019), and our results provide some evidence that this experience has similar effects to other early life adversities (i.e., abuse) discussed in feminist pathways literature (Chesney-Lind, 2006;Holsinger, 2000).…”

“…Based on previous feminist pathways theory work, we expect that women's, but not men's, crime will be explained by pathways stemming from physical abuse and sexual abuse (e.g., Belknap & Holsinger, 2006; Gehring, 2018). As described previously, we also expect that both women's and men's crime will be explained by pathways rooted in racial discrimination (Burt et al, 2012;Evans et al, 2019).…”

“…We, therefore, examine this possibility in our model. Last, to account for other variables that influence criminal behavior (Evans et al, 2019;Franzese et al, 2017;Simons et al, 2016;Watts, 2017), we control for baseline conduct disorder, deviant peer association, self-control, exposure to neighborhood victimization, and family economic hardship. We test our model with both men and women.…”

“…Consistent with Arnold (1990) and Gilfus (1992), among others, we argue that racial discrimination will be an early life experience that confers risk for criminal involvement in adulthood, akin to other traumatic experiences. Based on past research, it is likely that racial discrimination will impact both men and women’s crime (Burt et al, 2012; Evans et al, 2019). However, it is also possible that racial discrimination will not follow the same pathways to offending among men and women, consistent with pathways research more generally.…”