Abstracts Sociology

Literacy? A MultilevelMixed Methods Study of Adolescents in a Middle School

by Carlos E Rojas-Gaona

This individual-level study draws from Elijah Anderson’s (1999) Code of the Street theory to examine racial/ethnic differences in levels of code-related attitudes and criminal offending with special attention to Latinos. The code of the street is a normative system of values that emphasizes the use of violence to achieve respect among peers and avoid moral self-sanctions. Using a racially/ethnically diverse sample of serious adolescent offenders from two large U.S. cities and controlling for socio-demographic and risk factors, this study tests whether code-related attitudes are a mediating mechanism linking race/ethnicity and criminal offending.Net of a series of socio-demographic and risk factors, results obtained from path mediation models showed negative direct and total effects of Black non-Latino status on aggressive offending, and negative direct and total effects of Latino status on aggressive and income offending, relative to non-Latino Whites. More importantly, there is evidence of at least one mediation effect of race/ethnicity on criminal offending. Specifically, path mediation models revealed a positive indirect effect of Latino status on aggressive offending. That is, net of statistical controls, differences on aggressive offending among Latinos compared to non-Latino Whites operated indirectly through the adoption of code-related attitudes. Whereas the hypothesized mediation effect of code-related attitudes on aggressive offending was confirmed for Latinos, there is no support for the mediation effect of Black non-Latino status on aggressive and income offending through the adoption of code-related attitudes, nor for the effect of Latino status on income offending through the adoption of code-related attitudes. These results confirm and extend Anderson’s theory to describe adherence to street codes among serious adolescent offenders, and among other racial/ethnic minorities such as Latinos. Based on these findings, theoretical and policy implications of this study are discussed. Advisors/Committee Members: Sullivan, Christopher (Committee Chair).