A Life-Course Perspective on Stress, Delinquency and Young Adult Crime - Article Example

Article Critique: “A Life-Course Perspective on Stress, Delinquency and Young Adult Crime” Title Based on a reading of the entire article, the title can be deemed to be adequately describing the entire scope of the study. This is because the title does not highlight the location from which the study participants were selected from or the use of the General Strain Theory in the study to help in describing the potential pathway of delinquency/crime escalation and de-escalation. The article’s title fails to catch one’s attention as it is too general, and there is no mention that the article is actually a research study. Abstract The paper’s abstract contains the recommended content as it introduces the objectives of the paper, how the research was conducted, how the study participants were selected as well as the eventual results of the study. The abstract also provides a brief discussion of what the results of this study allude to. However, the abstract has a single drawback as it does not briefly outline the study’s implications for theory and policy. In my opinion the difficulty of summarizing information for an abstract into between 150-250 words is determined by factors that include the length of the article, its objectives, methodology used and its findings. If a research is found to have used a complex methodology and the subsequent results presented in a comprehensive and lengthy discussion, it will become rather difficult to summarize the necessary information and create a suitable abstract. Conversely if a research article has a relatively short methodology and the results are highlighted in a short discussion, it then becomes relatively easy to summarize the required information and develop an appropriate abstract. Introduction According to the Author, there are currently dozens of studies that have attempted to identify specific trajectories that attempt to index less or more involvement in delinquency. Although these studies have been instrumental in the classification of a criminal career or delinquent, such as their initiation, plateaus, escalation as well as deceleration, there have been relatively few studies conducted with the aim of examining the theoretically based factors that might be instrumental in predicting or explaining the patters of these behaviors over the individual’s life-course. It is principally due to this that the author conducted the study and wrote the article in a bid to describe and critically examine one potential pathway of delinquency de-escalation and escalation across young adulthood and adolescence which are considered to be important phases of life (Hofmann, 2010). In conducting this research, the interest of concern is noted to be the establishment of a link between stress and delinquency in adolescents and young adults. I believe that the problem highlighted in this research study is significant enough to warrant a journal article as the United States has over the years been grappling with the problem of an increasing crime rate. Large numbers of adolescents and young adults are now involving themselves in criminal activities. It is necessary to try and identify exactly what might be driving these individuals and causing them to involve themselves in these activities so as to understand how we can best reduce the crime-rate among this particular demographic. Reading the article does not leave me with a “So what?” reaction as I understand the value of the information derived from this research. The literature presented in the introduction is of great aid in helping the reader understand the problem as it mentions some of the studies that had previously been conducted and their findings and then goes on to highlights the area in which sufficient amounts of research have not been conducted. By doing this, the literature lays a foundation from which the reader is able to easily understand the particular problem in question. The researcher indicates that this research is similar to others that have examined the theoretically based factors that may predict or explain the stages of delinquent or criminal behaviors over the life-course, the researcher has also been careful to explain just how this research study is different from others and will add to the current knowledge base as he points out that the research will use the General Strain Theory (GST), to examine and describe one potential pathway of delinquency de-escalation and escalation across an important phase of the life course. The research study has a number of problems of interest, these include; establishing if experiencing an increasing or high number of relatively stressful life events is significantly related to the escalation of delinquency in early to mid-adolescence and, investigate the effects that stressful life events might happen to have on criminal/delinquent behavior in both early adulthood and late adolescence relative to the effects that they have tin early to mid-adolescence (Hofmann, 2010). The audience that might be particularly interested in this study might include parents with adolescent children, teachers and individuals involved in the juvenile criminal justice system. Methods The research uses a quantitative method as it analyzes data from a previous research that had been conducted by a prospective cohort (longitudinal) survey that had previously been conducted in a relatively large, metropolitan in the upper Midwestern area of the United States. The data from the study had previously been used to assess just how parental mental health disorders actually affect adolescent behavior and development. This approach corresponds with the research questions or hypotheses as it allows for the researcher to analyze data that had been derived from an assessment of children aged 10-17, this demographic and the research method are suitable as they will allow for the researcher easily acquire and analyze the data necessary for this research. In conducting this research, the research method that was utilized by the researcher was the use of questionnaires to collect the information from the research participants. This research method is effective as it allows for the researchers to quickly ask a series of targeted questions to the research participants within the targeted demographic of adolescents through to young adults. The research design is appropriate because the researchers are able to easily save on time during the data collection stage of the research study. The data that is derived from the research is also appropriate because as highlighted in the journal article, comparisons of the research data with data from the U.S. Census Bureau (USCB) shows that the data used in the research is actually representative of the demographic distribution of the population in this Midwestern metropolitan area of the United States. The survey’s data will successfully answer the research questions and address the stated hypotheses as it has been derived from the targeted demographic of individuals who are either in their adolescence or early adulthood. The research study has a number of variables which have appropriately been subdivided into dependent and independent variables. The main dependent variable in the research is delinquency and young adult crime, this time-varying outcome variable, is measured with the use of 14 questions that are designed to ask about the subject’s involvement over the previous years in a number of offenses that include the destruction or damaging of property, motor vehicle theft, shop lifting, attacking other individuals with the objective of either harming or even killing them, participating in any gang fight, the theft of items whose value is either over or under $50, as well as the use of a weapon in obtaining either property or money. These dependent variable delinquency questions have been adapted from the National youth survey and the responses to the survey questions are treated as count variables during each year. Using this method, the maximum value of this involvement scale is 14. The main independent variable that is noted in this research is the measure of stressful life events. The measure of this event is s a time-varying covariate that is essentially based on a number of events that are reported by the research respondents during the eight-year period. These are measured each years by the use of a checklist containing 16 items that have been derived from the Family Inventory of Life Events and Life Changes as well as the Junior High Life Experiences survey. In collecting the data on this independent variable, the study takes into account the incidences and events that occurred over a period spanning over 12 months prior to the start of each annual survey. These events and incidences generally include accidents, illness or death among he subjects friends and family; parental mental health problems; changes in residence or school; family financial problems as well as parental separation or divorce. The main method that is used to collect the data in this research study is the use of survey questionnaires. The methods used to collect the research data are clear enough to allow for a replication of the study as they are careful to highlight the independent and dependent variable questions that were asked during the survey. Other than pointing out that comparisons done with data from the USCB indicate that the study sample is indeed representative of the demographic distribution of the targeted population in the United States Midwestern metropolitan area, the researcher provides no information on either the reliability or validity the observations and measures in the study. This can results in questions and doubts being raised over the validity of the results of this study. In an attempt to try and address the questions over the credibility of this study, the researchers point out that the data used in this study has been derived from what are considered to be credible surveys conducted by the Family Health Study. Sample The study was able to obtain data from a sample size of 861 adolescents who were aged between 11-17 years during the first year of study and the impressive follow-up rate of 97.5% over the next eight years of data collection ensured that the sample size of the research respondents was large enough to sufficiently address both the research questions and its hypothesis. However, the Author does not offer any particular justification for the research study’s sample size. One of the questions about the sample size that I feel has not been addressed by the researcher is as to whether the results of this sample size can be applied in other areas other than the American Midwest. This is because the issue of delinquent and young adult crime is often of great concern among the African American population, however in this research study, the African-American population only accounts for 8% of the respondents while Whites account for a staggering 84% of the respondents. The demographics of the research participants has been described in sufficient detail as the research offers crucial information pertaining to the age range, race, the ration of females to males as well as the average annual incomes of the families selected to participate in the study. This information is crucial as it offers the reader an understanding of some of the characteristics that the researchers took into account while conducting the research. Individuals with different background characteristics such as sex and income levels will undoubtedly post different results and by highlighting that sample sizes were drawn from across the board, it is possible for the evaluation of the research to be deemed as all inclusive. The sample size of the respondents in this research study was reflective of the population from which it was drawn because as highlighted earlier, the researchers made a number of comparisons with data that was derived by the U.S. Census Bureau data. The comparison’s results indicated that the FHS sample was indeed representative of the general demographic distribution that is seen across the United States Midwestern metropolitan area. Representativeness is of great importance in this research if its results are to be applied in developing solutions aimed at reducing or eliminating delinquent and young adult crime across American Midwestern metropolitan area. In the event that this data is found to be non-representative, there will be a danger that the solutions formulated by using this data will not be effective in helping to successfully tackle the issue at hand. Results The data from the study was analyzed using a generalized estimating equation (GEE). GEEs are considered to be more a more general case of random-effects models that are primarily designed to help in assessing longitudinal data. The advantage of using GEEs in analyzing the longitudinal data from this research is that GEE’s allow for different correlation structures to be assumed and used in the within-unit portion of this model. Understanding the reporting of the results of this study was average for me as the researchers are careful to highlight which models were used in each section and how the values were arrived at. It was however a bit confusing at times and if possible, the researchers should attempt to simplify the results section and make it easier for people to understand. After reading the results section, I have no questions to raise as the researchers were careful to analyze and collect the necessary data from nearly every aspect that needed to analyzed. I believe that the results of this study are meaningful for both social work managers and practitioners, and especially those stationed in the United States Midwestern metropolitan regions, as the results of this study can help them in better understanding just how stress contributes to incidences of delinquency and young adult crime. This understanding can in-turn help them in better dealing with crime among adolescents and young adults as well as in the formulation of effective measures that will help them in successfully reducing the crime rates among this particular demographic across the entire region. Discussion In the discussion section of the article, the Author are seen to have made sense of their data as they are careful to highlight just how the results of the study eventually tie in with the study’s’ research questions and hypotheses. The conclusions made are very reasonable as they summarize and clearly highlight just how strain affects adolescents and young adults. The Author discussed the limitations of the study as they point out that the data used in the research was drawn form a limited area within the United States and this had the effect of causing the study sample to have a larger Caucasian sample that is clearly not representative of the actual adolescents and young adults population of the country. The study is also limited as the FHS did not include all the various moderators that are discussed in Agnew’s seminal article, now does it take into any account some of the other moderators that may invariably affect the stress-delinquency association. The researchers were able to stay within the limitations of their findings as they did not attempt to generalize any of the information that was derived from this study and attempt to apply it in other areas with different demographics. They were also careful to describe exactly how the findings of the research study relate with the research hypotheses. At the end of the research, the researchers failed to suggest any issues that future research should consider. Instead, the researcher only highlights the drawbacks within this research. References Hoffmann, J. P. (2010). A life-course perspective on stress, delinquency, and young adult crime. American Journal of Criminal Justice, 35(3), 105-120. Read More