Racial Discrimination and Pathways to Delinquency

• Author: James D. Unnever,J. C. Barnes,Francis T. Cullen
• DOI: 10.1177/2153368716658768
• Published date: 01 October 2017
• Date: 01 October 2017
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

Racial Discrimination and

Pathways to Delinquency:

Testing a Theory of African

American Offending

James D. Unnever

1

, Francis T. Cullen

2

and J. C. Barnes

2

Abstract

The current study draws on two cohorts of African American youths from the Project

on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods, Longitudinal Cohort Study to

examine whether perceived racial discrimination directly and indirectly affects juvenile

delinquency. The analyses reveal that racial discrimination may foster offending by

increasing (1) the likelihood that African American youths will drop out of school and

(2) the degree to which they associate with delinquent peers. Evidence supporting the

pathway between racial discrimination, associating with delinquent peers, and offending

was found after introducing controls for demographic, social, and individual trait fac-

tors. In a society that remains racialized, it thus appears that a full explanation of African

Americans’ offending should take into account the ways in which racial subordination

may place African American youths on pathways that lead toward criminal involvement.

Keywords

race, racism, racial discrimination, black offending, criminological theories, race/

ethnicity

An emerging body of research recognizes that an understanding of African American

offending must be grounded in the everyday experiences of being Black in a racialized

society. Notably, the overwhelming majority of African Americans report facing

1

Department of Criminology, University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee, Sarasota, FL, USA

2

School of Criminal Justice, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, USA

Corresponding Author:

James D. Unnever, Professor, Department of Criminology, University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee,

8350 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota, FL 34243, USA.

Email: unnever@sar.usf.edu

Race and Justice

2017, Vol. 7(4) 350-373

ªThe Author(s) 2016

Reprints and permission:

sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav

DOI: 10.1177/2153368716658768

journals.sagepub.com/home/raj

racial discrimination running the gamut from omnipresent ‘‘microaggressions’’ (i.e.,

daily life hassles that are attributed to racial discrimination) to poignant encounters

such as being racially profiled by the police or being denied unemployment because of

their skin color (Geller, Fagan, Tyler, & Link, 2014; Sellers, Copeland-Linder,

Martin, & Lewis, 2006; Wong, Derthick, David, Saw, & Okazaki, 2014). The ubi-

quity of these experiences means that African Americans as young as 6 years of age

understand and apply racist stereotypes and expect to experience racial discrimination

by the age of 8 (Hope, Skoog, & Jagers, 2015; Rowley, Burchinal, Roberts, & Zeisel,

2008).

The available research is also replete with evidence that racial discrimination has

deleterious consequences for African Americans, including physical health-related

issues (e.g., higher blood pressure), mental health issues (e.g., substance abuse),

increases in anger and depression, internalizing and externalizing behaviors, and

elevated incidences of offending (Burt & Simons, 2015; Gibbons et al., 2012; Parham

& McDavis, 1987; Riina, Martin, Gardner, & Brooks-Gunn, 2013; Simons et al.,

2002; Unnever, 2014). Indeed, a meta-analysis of 134 samples found that perceived

discrimination has a significant negative effect on both mental and physical health and

is related to participation in unhealthy behaviors and nonparticipation in healthy

behaviors (Pascoe & Richman, 2009). Thus, the research reveals that the more African

Americans experience racial discrimination, the greater their likelihood of exhibiting

negative behaviors such as criminal activity.

Although scholars recognize that a significant relationship exists between racial

discrimination and offending, the reasons for such an association remain less clear

(Unnever, Cullen, Mathers, McClure, &, Allison, 2009). A systematic attempt to

address this issue, however, is present in Unnever and Gabbidon’s (2011) race-

specific theory of African American offending. This theory begins with the obser-

vation that racial discrimination is not situational but systematic within racially

stratified societies such as the United States. Because it is systemic, African Amer-

icans have developed a racialized understanding of what it means to be Black. A

component of this racialized understanding is the awareness that they will encounter

racial discrimination because of their skin color. Thus, exposure to racial discrimi-

nation is chronic: It emerges in childhood, is experienced throughout adolescence, and

persists into adulthood.

A core component of Unnever and Gabbidon’s (2011) theory of African American

offending is the hypothesis that experiencing racial discrimination weakens ties (i.e.,

social bonds) with conventional institutions. This hypothesis flows from their argu-

ment that African Americans perceive that racial discrimination emanates from racist

institutional arrangements. This means that African Americans will encounter both

individual acts of racism and those that have become institutionalized. Consequently,

African Americans should have weaker bonds with those institutions.

In this article, we test a core component of Unnever and Gabbidon’s (2011) theory

of African American offending, which asserts that weak social bonds are a key

pathway between racial discrimination and misconduct among African American

youths. Analyzing a longitudinal sample of African American youths from the Project

Unnever et al. 351