NCJ Number
202131
Date Published
2003
Length
23 pages
Annotation
This study examined the effect of religious involvement on the deleterious influence of neighborhood disorder on America’s Black youth.
Abstract
Previous research has indicated that living in disadvantaged neighborhoods produces deleterious outcomes for youth, including drug abuse and a host of other social ills. Protective factors such as strong bonds to school and family help to mitigate these deleterious influences, however. The author engaged in multivariate analyses of data from the longitudinal National Youth Survey, which involved 1,725 study participants aged 11 to 17. Key variables under consideration included measures of neighborhood disorder, individual religious involvement, and measures of social bonding, and individual involvement in general and serious crime. Results indicated that religious involvement has a moderating effect on the propensity for Black youth to commit serious crime. However, the interaction between neighborhood disorder, religious involvement, and the propensity to engage in general crime was not significant. One of the major implications of these findings is that African-American churches should not be overlooked as a protective factor against serious youth crime. Further quantitative analyses are needed to clarify the relationship between religion and crime, especially among the at-risk youth population.