RACIAL DISCRIMINATION, RACIAL SOCIALIZATION, AND CRIME OVER TIME: A SOCIAL SCHEMATIC THEORY MODEL

• Date: 01 November 2017
• Published date: 01 November 2017
• Author: CALLIE H. BURT,MAN KIT LEI,RONALD L. SIMONS
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/1745-9125.12164

RACIAL DISCRIMINATION, RACIAL

SOCIALIZATION, AND CRIME OVER TIME: A SOCIAL

SCHEMATIC THEORY MODEL∗

CALLIE H. BURT,1MAN KIT LEI,2and RONALD L. SIMONS2

1University of Washington

2University of Georgia

KEYWORDS: crime, racial discrimination, racial socialization, life course, social

schemas, social schematic theory

Recent studies evince that interpersonal racial discrimination (IRD) increases the

risk of crime among African Americans and familial racial socialization fosters

resilience to discrimination’s criminogenic effects. Yet, studies have focused on the

short-term effects of IRD and racial socialization largely among adolescents. In this

study, we seek to advance knowledge by elucidating how racialized experiences—in

interactions and socialization—influence crime for African Americans over time.

Elaborating Simons and Burt’s (2011) social schematic theory, we trace the effects of

childhood IRD and familial racial socialization on adult offending through cognitive

and social pathways and their interplay. We test this life-course SST model using data

from the FACHS, a multisite study of Black youth and their families from ages 10 to

25. Consistent with the model, analyses reveal that the criminogenic consequences of

childhood IRD are mediated cognitively by a criminogenic knowledge structure and

socially through the nature of social relationships in concert with ongoing offending

and discrimination experiences. Specifically, by increasing criminogenic cognitive

schemas, IRD decreases embeddedness in supportive romantic, educational, and em-

ployment relations, which influence social schemas and later crime. Consonant with

expectations, the findings also indicate that racial socialization provides enduring re-

silience by both compensating for and buffering discrimination’s criminogenic effects.

∗Additional supporting information can be found in the listing for this article in the Wiley Online

Library at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/crim.2017.55.issue-4/issuetoc.

The authors thank Eric Baumer and anonymous reviewers at Criminology for their careful review

and valuable comments. The article has been significantly improved based on their insights. Addi-

tionally, the authors are grateful to Kara Hannula, Ross Matsueda, Stew Tolnay, and Bob Crutch-

field for generously providing review and feedback. Earlier versions of this article were presented

at the 2015 annual meeting of the American Society of Criminology in Washington, DC, and the

2016 ASA meetings in Seattle, WA. This research was supported by an NIJ Du Bois Fellowship

(2013-IJ-CX-0022) to the first author, who conceived of the study, prepared the data, conducted

analyses, wrote the manuscript, and performed revisions. Karlo Lei contributed data analyses,

and Ron Simons provided data from the FACHS, a project designed by Ron Simons, Frederick

Gibbons, and Carolyn Cutrona and funded by grants from the National Institute of Mental Health

(MH48165, MH62669), the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (029136-02), the Na-

tional Institute on Drug Abuse (DA021898), and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and

Alcoholism. Direct correspondence to Callie H. Burt, Department of Sociology, University of

Washington, 211 Savery Hall, Box 353340, Seattle, WA 98195-3340 (e-mail: chburt@uw.edu).

C2017 American Society of Criminology doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12164

CRIMINOLOGY Volume 55 Number 4 938–979 2017 938

RACIALIZED EXPERIENCES AND CRIME OVER TIME 939

Racial disparities in street crime have long been a focus of criminological scholarship.

Although differences are vastly magnified by biases in the criminal justice system (Spohn,

2015; Tonry, 1995), evidence from a range of sources indicates that African Americans

engage in higher rates of street crime than do Whites (e.g., Elliott, 1994; Hawkins et al.,

2000; Piquero and Brame, 2008).1Following the classic works of Sampson (1987), Samp-

son and Wilson (1995), and Massey and Denton (1993), among others (e.g., Hawkins,

1983; Krivo and Peterson, 2000), macro-level structural explanations have dominated

research on race and crime. These approaches examine racial disparities in offending

from contextual lenses by focusing on variations in crime across communities that vary

in ethnic-racial composition and levels of inequality. Here, race is a “marker for the con-

stellation of social contexts” in which individuals are embedded (Sampson and Bean,

2006: 8).

In more recent years, scholars have pointed to situational stratification and the need

to compliment macro-level explanations with a consideration of the way that racial

stratification is instantiated in micro-level interactional processes (e.g., Bruce, Roscigno,

and McCall, 1998; Burt, Simons, and Gibbons, 2012; Kaufman et al., 2008). This approach

highlights the role of different “kinds of situations” faced by racial minorities, specifically

the experience of inequality in social interaction, and how these stratified interactions

shape development and patterns of offending. Adopting this perspective, scholars have

pointed to interpersonal racial discrimination (IRD)—the blatant, subtle, and covert

actions, verbal messages, or signals that are supported by racism and malign, mistreat, or

otherwise harm racial minorities (Essed, 1991; Feagin, 1991)—as a situational mechanism

of stratification and a risk factor for crime (Burt, Simons, and Gibbons, 2012). Over the

past decade, more than 15 studies have investigated this topic, and without exception,

have shown that IRD increases the risk of offending among racial minority youth (e.g.,

Burt and Simons, 2015; Martin et al., 2011; Simons et al., 2006; Unnever et al., 2009) and,

as a pernicious risk factor unique to racial minorities, contributes to racial disparities in

offending.

Despite compelling evidence that IRD persists and is criminogenic, research has pri-

marily focused on the short-term effects of IRD on offending, invariably among ado-

lescents. Consequently, there is a gap in our understanding of the longer term effects

of IRD on offending among African Americans. Addressing this lacuna, the present

study seeks to advance knowledge by exploring whether and how IRD’s criminogenic

effects endure by adopting a life-course approach, which highlights mechanisms that

sustain continuity and allow for change. Specifically, we consider the individual mech-

anisms and social pathways through which the criminogenic effects of IRD persist, rec-

ognizing that change, as adaptation to social conditions that are influenced but not de-

termined by individual characteristics, is constant. Our goal is to conceptually trace

the criminogenic effects of IRD experienced in childhood and adolescence on devel-

opment in ways that influence the likelihood of later offending, highlighting both so-

cial and cognitive developmental pathways and their interplay in concert with ongoing

1. In noting the evidence that Blacks engage in higher rates of street crime than do Whites, we do not

imply that general crime or its harmful effects are greater for Blacks compared with Whites. It is

certainly the case that by focusing on street crimes, racial disparities are magnified (Reiman, 1979;

Young, 2006). We use the term “crime” throughout the article, but readers should note that our

focus is on street crimes.

940 BURT, LEI, & SIMONS

offending and racial discrimination. In so doing, we extend Simons and Burt’s (2011)

social schematic theory of crime and draw on key ideas from life-course and develop-

mental theories to delineate a life-course model of IRD and crime.2We explore the ef-

fects of discrimination through criminogenic social schemas on three salient age-graded

relationships and ties: romantic relationships, education, and employment. Our main

thesis is that IRD’s criminogenic effects endure cognitively through criminogenic so-

cial schemas and socially through its effects on the nature of relationships and institu-

tional involvements across the life course. Individuals with highly criminogenic schemas,

in part as a function of their discrimination experiences, are less likely to be embed-

ded in supportive social relationships and fields due to processes of interactional and

cumulative continuity (e.g., Caspi, Bem, and Elder, 1989; Matsueda and Heimer, 1997;

Sampson and Laub, 1993). These dynamic processes, in turn, not only probabilisti-

cally increase the likelihood of crime but also maintain, if not augment, criminogenic

social schemas.

In addition, building on research that takes a strength approach to African Ameri-

can families and cultures to understand resilience to racial discrimination, we consider

the protective effects of familial racial socialization—explicit or tacit messages that fam-

ily members communicate to children about their racial cultural heritage and history,

the realities of racism, and how to cope with racism effectively (e.g., Hughes et al., 2006;

Peters, 1985; Stevenson, 2003). Recent work shows that two forms of racial socialization—

preparation for bias and cultural socialization—compensate for and buffer the crimino-

genic effects of discrimination in adolescence (Burt and Simons, 2015; Burt, Simons, and

Gibbons, 2012). We extend this work by examining whether familial cultural socializa-

tion and preparation for bias have lasting protective effects. Specifically, we test whether

these two proactive and protective forms of racial socialization reduce the enduring neg-

ative effects of discrimination on crime in part by counteracting and weakening the effect

of racial discrimination on criminogenic cognitive schemas and involvement in supportive

relationships and institutions in emerging adulthood.

To test our hypotheses, we use data from the Family and Community Health Study

(FACHS). The FACHS is a comprehensive panel study of African American families

from a variety of settings and includes respondents from a range of socioeconomic situ-

ations from the very poor to the upper middle class. With its developmental focus, these

data are particularly well suited for examining the pathways through which racial discrim-

ination influences offending.

INTERPERSONAL RACIAL DISCRIMINATION AND CRIME

As noted, recent research on racial disparities in street crime has taken a micro-level

turn. This approach translates racial stratification to the situational level and highlights

2. To be clear, this model is an initial (and incomplete) life-course elaboration of SST. Although,

as one reviewer correctly noted, the presented SST model does not provide a full explanation

of continuity and change in offending over time, we believe that this longitudinal elaboration of

SST is appropriately characterized as a life-course model given that we adopt the principle foci

as well as central tenets of the life-course approach, including the emphasis on explaining within-

individual stability and change, the principle of life-long openness, and the social basis of change

and continuity through successive phases of life (Elder, 1985; Sampson and Laub, 2005).