City and/or Neighbourhood Determinants?
| Author | Jan Gerris,Peer Scheepers,Gijs Weijters |
| DOI | 10.1177/1477370809337883 |
| Published date | 01 September 2009 |
| Date | 01 September 2009 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
City and/or Neighbourhood
Determinants?
Studying Contextual Effects on Youth Delinquency
Gijs Weijters
Ministry of Justice, The Netherlands
Peer Scheepers
Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Jan Gerris
Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands
ABSTRACT
Previous research has not yet integrated determinants of youth delinquency
at the city, neighbourhood and individual levels simultaneously. In this study
we derived hypotheses from social disorganization theory at the city level as
well as at the neighbourhood level. We use individual-level data from 11 cities
in the Netherlands, supplemented with information about the structural char-
acteristics of these cities and their neighbourhoods. Our results show that
concentrated contextual disadvantage at both city and neighbourhood levels
affects juvenile delinquency. More detailed analyses demonstrate that it is
particularly the percentage of one-parent families that has a significant effect on
youth delinquency. The implications for the study of the influence of ecological
contexts on youth delinquency are discussed.
KEY WORDS
Cities and Neighbourhoods / Multilevel Analysis / Social Disorganization
Theory / Youth Delinquency.
Volume 6 (5): 439–455: 1477-3708
DOI: 10.1177/1477370809337883
© The Author(s), 2009. Reprints and Permissions:
http://www.sagepub.co.uk/JournalsPermissions.nav
www.sagepublications.com
440 European Journal of Criminology 6(5)
Introduction
It is well known that crime is most prevalent in urban areas. Consequently,
researchers have shown great interest in trying to explain differences in
crime rates between cities (e.g. Blau and Blau 1982; Balkwell 1990; Miethe
et al. 1991; Shihadeh and Steffensmeier 1994; Shihadeh and Flynn 1996;
Parker 2001; Velez et al. 2003). However, these researchers focus solely
on the determinants at the city level in explaining differences in crime rates
between cities, thus neglecting possible influences at lower levels (such as
the neighbourhood and individual levels). As a consequence, many studies
assume, but do not test, the influence of these city characteristics on indi-
vidual levels of crime.
Another implication of the prevalence of crime in city contexts is that
researchers pay attention to neighbourhoods within cities. Researchers
studying the influence of neighbourhood characteristics on crime mostly
con sider both neighbourhood- and individual-level characteristics (e.g.
Sampson and Groves 1989; Peeples and Loeber 1994; Sampson et al. 1997;
Wittebrood 2000; Beyers et al. 2001). Higher-level determinants such as
city characteristics, however, are ignored by these researchers.
Recently, it has been shown that, by ignoring the city level in the
study of youth delinquency, differences at the neighbourhood level are over-
estimated (Weijters et al. 2007): when the city level was excluded from
the analyses, neighbourhoods seemed to differ in the extent of youth de-
linquency; however, when the city level was included, it appeared that
the differences between neighbourhoods should actually be attributed to
the city level. The results of Weijters et al. (2007) thus have shown that
only neighbourhoods from different cities differ. Neighbourhoods within
the same city show equal amounts of self-reported youth delinquency.
Thus, previous research on the explanation of individual differences
in juvenile delinquency has not yet included the city level. At the same time,
earlier research has shown that cities do play a role in the explanation of
individual differences in youth delinquency (Weijters et al. 2007). Therefore
we aim to determine which urban characteristics affect youth delinquency
at the individual level, above and beyond the influence of neighbourhood
and individual characteristics. Including different ecological contexts in the
analyses makes it possible to simultaneously test the influence of determinants
located at the city level as well as at the neighbourhood level. Moreover, in
this way an indication can be given of which phenomena at which ecological
level are decisive in the explanation of youth delinquency.
In this article we will test whether (and which) city and neighbourhood
characteristics have additional effects on juvenile delinquency, controlling
for individual-level determinants. For this purpose we will derive hypotheses
Get this document and AI-powered insights with a free trial of vLex and Vincent AI
Get Started for FreeStart Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
