In Search of Public Perceptions of Disorder and Crime: Examining the Core Tenets of Broken Windows Theory.

A cornerstone of broken windows theory concerns public perceptions of disorder and crime, and the citizens' "panic response" with the onset of disorder in their neighborhoods. Naturally, assuming this dynamic to exist lends support for a significant expansion of police operations from traditional crime control to order maintenance. More specifically, the advocates of the theory presume that citizens view disorder and crime as two distinctive constructs, and further that the former triggers the latter. Broken windows theory was quite popular during the 1990s and early 2000s, a period in which order maintenance or quality of life policing reached its apex of popularity. Findings from recent studies on public perceptions of disorder and crime, however, have called into serious question: the cognitive distinction between crime and disorder. Using data collected from a random telephone survey of residents residing in the Houston metropolitan area, we follow this line of research and test the hypothesized dynamics underlying broken windows theory. Our principal findings suggest that neither a one-factor model (convergent) nor a two-factor model (discriminant) fit the empirical data when an appropriate concept validation process is carried out. Implications are drawn for broken windows theory and some specific recommendations are made for future research at the end of the study.

The Role of Perceived Legitimacy and Its Effect on Prison Adaptation: A Longitudinal Study on a Chinese Juvenile Prison.

Research into offenders' adaptation to prison environment has been a topic of enduring interest. Recently, perceived legitimacy in corrections has attracted considerable attention and emerged as an important area of research in the prison settings. The purpose of this study is to examine the factors associated with perceived legitimacy in corrections, and document its effect on juvenile offenders' adaptation to the institutional environment of a Chinese youth prison. Data for the analysis were collected from the lone youth prison located in an autonomous region with more than 47 million persons of varying ethnicity. Using structural equation modeling (SEM), the findings suggest a significant effect for perceived legitimacy on juvenile offender adaptation to prison programs. The final model was able to explain 61% of variation in the outcome variable and identify several prominent contributors to perceived legitimacy. Policy implications were highlighted in the "Discussion and Conclusion" section.

The Impact of Two Different Cultures on Juvenile Attitudes Toward the Police in China.

This study examines juvenile attitudes toward the police (JATP) from an unconventional angle by examining the possible effect of two different cultures along with more conventional factors typically associated with youth attitude formation. A unique feature of this study is the inclusion of measures of attachment to both the traditional Chinese culture and Western popular culture. The data were collected from 30 minority middle schools with more than 6,500 students in a southern autonomous region in China in 2014. The primary findings indicate that juveniles who are more firmly attached to the traditional Chinese culture and who show respect for parents/teachers tend to hold a more positive view of the police. In contrast, juveniles who endorse Western popular culture and are perceived as a fan of that culture are more likely to hold a negative view of the police, societal actors who are viewed as primary representatives of the mainstream culture.

Public Attitudes Toward the Police: Findings From a Dual-Frame Telephone Survey.

Using telephone survey data collected in Houston, Texas, this study explores the feasibility of a dual-frame (landline and cell-phone-only household samples) design survey in police studies and compares the corresponding characteristics of survey respondents and multiple measures of citizens' attitudes toward the police. It was found that a cell-phone interview with the same scope and length of a landline interview is indeed operationally feasible, albeit at higher cost and lower response rate. Compared with their landline counterparts, respondents in our cell-phone-only sample are younger, males, members of ethnic minority, renters, mobile, and less educated. No appreciable attitudinal differences among the respondents are observed between the two samples. In addition, substantive outcomes from multivariate regression models do not seem to be impacted by the types of phones used. Implications for future studies are included.

Testing For Measurement Invariance of Attachment Across Chinese and American Adolescent Samples.

Adolescent attachment to formal and informal institutions has emerged as a major focus of criminological theories since the publication of Hirschi's work in 1969. This study attempts to examine the psychometric equivalence of the factorial structure of attachment measures across nations reflecting Western and Eastern cultures. Twelve manifest variables are used tapping the concepts of adolescent attachment to parents, school, and neighborhood. Confirmatory factor analysis is used to conduct invariance test across approximately 3,000 Chinese and U.S. adolescents. Results provide strong support for a three-factor model; the multigroup invariance tests reveal mixed results. While the family attachment measure appears invariant between the two samples, significant differences in the coefficients of the factor loadings are detected in the school attachment and neighborhood attachment measures. The results of regression analyses lend support to the predictive validity of three types of attachment. Finally, the limitations of the study are discussed.

The concentration of criminal victimization and patterns of routine activities.

Although many repeat victimization studies have focused on describing the prevalence of the phenomenon, this study attempted to explain variations in the concentration of victimization by applying routine activities as a theoretical model. A multivariate analysis of repeat victimization based on the 2005 Taiwan criminal victimization data supported the general applicability of the routine activity model developed in Western culture for predicting repeat victimization. Findings that diverged from Western patterns included family income to assault, gender to robbery, and marital status, family income, and major activity to larceny incidents. These disparities illustrated the importance of considering the broader sociocultural context in the association between risk predictors and the concentration of criminal victimization. The contradictory results and nonsignificant variance also reflected untapped information on respondents' biological features and psychological tendencies. Future victimization research would do well to integrate measurements that are sensitive to salient sociocultural elements of the society being studied and individuals' biological and psychological traits.

Social support and anomie: a multilevel analysis of anomie in Europe and North America.

On the basis of the reasoning of social support theory, the authors examine the macro effect of social support on anomie at the individual level. Data from international surveys have documented wide variation in anomie across nations, but to what extent this variation among nations can be contributed to structural characteristics has not been explored before. Using hierarchical linear modeling techniques to sort out the effects of structural context and personal characteristics on anomie across 31 European and North American nations, the authors test the hypothesis that variation in social support at the national level is inversely related to individuals' sense of anomie. The study results support the hypothesis that structural characteristics of a nation, such as social support and population growth, influence individuals' sense of anomie. At the individual level, the results are consistent with Merton's predictions about anomie and the reasoning of social support theory. Policy implication is discussed within the limitations of data.