NCJ Number
207943
Journal
Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice: An Interdisciplinary Journal Volume: 3 Issue: 1 Dated: January 2005 Pages: 3-22
Date Published
January 2005
Length
20 pages
Annotation
This study examined the effects of individual- and aggregate-level pro-violence values on the violent behavior of youth.
Abstract
The subculture of violence perspective holds that individuals who are embedded in social contexts that condone violence will have a greater chance of adopting pro-violence values and behaviors. The current study extends the subculture of violence perspective by conceptualizing schools as the social contexts that vary in terms of pro-violence values. Data were drawn from 3,690 7th-grade students from 65 middle schools in Kentucky to analyze multilevel models of the relationship between violent subcultures and violent behavior. The study also examined the effects of aggregate- and individual-level indicators of violent values on individual school-based violent behavior and explored whether the multilevel effects of pro-violence values remained significant in models that controlled for theoretically relevant covariates. Results of regression analyses indicated that differences between schools in violent values were associated with school violence in the expected direction. Individual-level analyses also indicated that individual students who held pro-violence values were more likely to commit violent acts. The multilevel analysis revealed that the effect of pro-violence values on violent behavior was largely an individual-level effect and that the school-level contextual variable was not statistically significant. Thus, the evidence for a school subculture of violence argument was lacking, which contradicts other recent research in this area. Given the lack of research on the subculture of violence in school settings and the contradictory research findings that have been generated, more research is necessary. Tables, notes, references