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Article 1: Self-Control and Social Bonds: A Combined Control Perspective on Deviance

Abstract: With longitudinal data from a sample of adult male drug offenders, this study tested four aspects of social bonding (attachment, involvement, religious commitment, and moral belief) and association with substance-using peers as outcomes of low self-control and as mediators of the relationship between low self-control and drug use. Low self-control was negatively related to social bonds and positively related to drug use and association with substance-using peers. The relationship between low self-control and drug use was fully mediated by moral belief and association with substance-using peers. These results support the utility of integrating self-control and social bonding perspectives on deviance.
 

Article 2: Community Disadvantage, Prosocial Bonds, and Juvenile Reoffending 
A Multilevel Mediation Analysis                                   

Abstract: Prior efforts suggest that adverse community contexts have the ability to impact juvenile recidivism. However, far less research has examined the indirect effects of community disadvantage on delinquent youth reoffending. As a result, it remains unclear whether several theoretically relevant mechanisms mediate the effects of disadvantage on continued delinquent behavior. Drawing from theoretical models of contextual effects, as well as social control theory, the present study examines whether prosocial bonds are salient mechanisms in the context–recidivism relationship. Using a sample of over 20,000 juvenile offenders, our results indicate that both prosocial relationships and prosocial activities partially mediate the effect of community disadvantage on youth reoffending. Findings from the current study are discussed, along with policy implications and directions for future research in this area.
 

Article 3. Gender and General Strain Theory: The Gendering of Emotional Experiences and Expressions         

Abstract: In their strain theory explanation for the gender gap in delinquency, Broidy and Agnew posit that the joint experience of anger and depression, which is more typical among females than males, should help explain gender differences in delinquency. The authors extend and test their claim using data from a southeastern middle school. Their findings show that females are more likely than males to experience anger and depression concomitantly and that the interaction between anger and depression is important for understanding the gender gap in delinquency. This is not because depression alleviates the impact of anger on delinquency among females, as suggested by gendered strain theory. Instead, depression exacerbates the effect of anger on delinquency among males. This article concludes that the key to understanding links between gender, emotions, and delinquency resides in gendered expressions of emotional responses to stress rather than in gendered experiences of emotions.
 

Article 4. Social Isolation, Strain, and Youth Violence                           

Abstract: This article examines the relationship between types of social isolation and violent delinquency. Deriving hypotheses from elements of general strain theory, we test whether the isolation–violence relationship varies across different types of isolated youth when compared to sociable youth. We also test whether other negative experiences and circumstances (types of social strain) associated with adolescence moderate the relationship between isolation types and violent delinquency. Using the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, we find that different types of social isolation had varying effects on violent delinquency. Socially disinterested youth show a greater capacity for violent behavior, but other types of marginalized youth showed no difference in violence when compared to sociable youth. Results also demonstrate that some types of strain moderate the isolation–violence relationship. The implications of these findings for research on peer relations, adolescent strain, and violence are discussed.