Discrimination, Emotions, and Identity: Unpacking Latinx Pathways to Crime

• Author: Amber Wilson,Deanna Cann,Deena A. Isom
• Published date: 01 March 2022
• Date: 01 March 2022
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/00938548211040546
• Subject Matter: Articles

CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND BEHAVIOR, 2022, Vol. 49, No. 3, March 2022, 432 –450.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/00938548211040546

Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions

© 2021 International Association for Correctional and Forensic Psychology

432

DISCRIMINATION, EMOTIONS, AND IDENTITY

Unpacking Latinx Pathways to Crime

DEENA A. ISOM

DEANNA CANN

University of South Carolina

AMBER WILSON

University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire

In the United States, populations of Color are overrepresented across virtually all arenas of the criminal justice system.

These realities have led scholars to bring race and ethnicity to the forefront of our examinations of crime and justice.

Understanding how culturally specific factors distinctly impact a group is imperative when it comes to understanding why

some engage in offending while others do not. Analyzing the pathways specified by the theory of African American

Offending (TAAO) among a Latinx population can help shed light on whether this theory may be broadly applicable to

populations of Color. This insight can aid in the development of culturally appropriate interventions and policies to com-

bat the institutional racism that increases marginalized populations’ likelihood of contact with the criminal justice system.

Thus, we explore how well TAAO pathways apply to a Latinx sample of youth. Findings lend support for culturally dis-

tinct examinations. Implications are discussed.

Keywords: ethnicity; injustice; crimmigration; anger; depression; offending

The American criminal justice system has long been criticized for its documented racial

and ethnic disparities. Scholars argue that understanding and addressing the racial and

ethnic criminal injustices in our society require culture-specific explanations that take into

account individuals’ lived experiences and within-group variations (e.g., Brooks, 1994;

Solorzano & Yosso, 2001). To this end, Unnever and Gabbidon (2011) developed the theory

of African American offending (TAAO), suggesting that Black Americans share a unique

worldview largely as a result of their historical oppression and marginalized social position.

In brief, TAAO contends that Black people experience unique forms of racial discrimina-

tion and criminal justice injustices, which can lead to negative emotions that exacerbate the

likelihood of criminogenic behavior. These experiences, however, are theorized to be

AUTHORS’ NOTE: We have no known conflict of interest to disclose. Correspondence concerning this article

should be addressed to Deena A. Isom, Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice and African American

Studies Program, University of South Carolina, 1305 Greene Street, Columbia, SC 29208; e-mail: isom@

mailbox.sc.edu.

1040546CJBXXX10.1177/00938548211040546Criminal Justice and BehaviorIsom et al. / Latinx Pathways to Crime

research-article2022

Isom et al. / LATINX PATHWAYS TO CRIME 433

conditioned by racial socialization and identity, which may serve to provide resilience and/

or spark resistance (Unnever & Gabbidon, 2011).

Although Black and Latinx people are indeed culturally distinct, these groups share simi-

lar structural positions and social experiences within the American context. Similar to their

Black counterparts, Latinx youth are criminalized, experience comparable institutional dis-

crimination, and develop common subcultures and worldviews to cope with their marginal-

ized positions (Rios, 2011). As such, the major tenets of TAAO—the consideration of

diverse forms of discrimination, the influence of negative emotions, and the conditioning

effects of ethnic and racial identity—may tentatively apply to Latinx individuals.

Alternatively, it is also possible that cultural distinctions between these groups result in

diverse pathways toward and away from crime. In other words, TAAO may work broadly

as a theory of crime that explains the similar experiences of people of Color in the United

States; on the contrary, the theory may be better applied as a framework that calls for under-

standing the culture-specific experiences of different marginalized groups.

Analyzing the pathways specified by TAAO among a Latinx population can help shed

light on whether this theory may be broadly applicable to populations of Color within the

United States. This insight can aid in the development of culturally appropriate interven-

tions and policies to combat the institutional racism that increases marginalized popula-

tions’ likelihood of contact with the criminal justice system. To this end, we review the

empirical connections between discrimination, negative emotions, ethnic socialization and

identity, and criminal behavior for Latinx populations. We then explore how well TAAO

pathways apply to a Latinx sample of youth.

LATINX PATHWAYS TO OFFENDING

In brief, Unnever and Gabbidon (2011) purport that marginalized groups face specific

forms of discrimination such as criminal justice injustices and everyday experiences of

racial/ethnic discrimination. Based on variation in individual racial/ethnic socialization,

these experiences may or may not lead to a degree of negative emotions, namely, anger and

depression, which in turn influence the likelihood of offending. These premises have gar-

nered a good degree of empirical support, although assessments have focused almost exclu-

sively on Black populations (e.g., Gaston & Doherty, 2018; Isom, 2016; Jones & Greene,

2016; Isom Scott & Seal, 2019; Unnever, 2014; Unnever et al., 2016).

Some research, however, provides evidence of these associations among Latinx persons.

Experiences of discrimination among Latinx youth are shown to be linked to increased

depression, distress, and anger (Finch et al., 2000; Isom Scott et al., 2020), and disadvan-

taged Latino youth tend to respond to discrimination with feelings of shame and frustration,

which often manifests in forms of criminalized resistance (Rios, 2011). Other work with

Latinx youth has found anger to be directly associated with an increased likelihood of

offending (Isom Scott et al., 2020), and the effects of discrimination on violent delinquency

to be partially mediated by anger (Pérez et al., 2008). Finally, the influence of ethnic social-

ization and identity is uncertain among this population. Ethnic socialization describes the

process wherein children and adolescents learn the unique aspects of their shared heritage

and culture, which can ultimately result in the development of a shared ethnic identity

(Umaña-Taylor et al., 2013). While some researchers have found ethnic identity to be pro-

tective against the negative effects of discrimination (Martinez & Dukes, 1997; Romero