Citation

Burgason KA, DeLisi M, Heirigs MH, Kusow A, Erickson JH, Vaughn MG. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2020; 17(7): e2432.

Affiliation

Graduate School of Social Welfare and College of Social Science, Yonsei University, Seoul 03722, Korea.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, MDPI: Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute)

DOI

10.3390/ijerph17072432

PMID

32260070

Abstract

Since Anderson's now classic, Code of the Street: Decency, Violence, and the Moral Life of the Inner City, an increasing number of researchers have found a significant association between the code of the street and antisocial behavior. Less researched, however, is the relationship between the code of the street and cognate psychological factors. Building on the hypothesis that the code of the street is simply a reflection of elements of the population who exhibit antisocial traits, our aim in this study is to empirically test whether the observed association between the code of the street and antisocial behavior can withstand psychological confounds among a sample of institutionalized juvenile delinquents. Negative binomial regression models show that the code of the street remained a significant predictor of antisocial behavior despite the specification of psychopathy and temperamental traits and other controls. Moreover, as theorized, differential effects were found for African American delinquents compared to non-African American delinquents. We discuss theoretical and practical implications.

Language: en

Keywords

code of the street; criminological theory; delinquency; psychopathy; temperament; violence