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Criminologists typically test rational choice theory by examining the relationship between one aspect of decision making—the perceived costs and benefits of crime—and the likelihood of crime, primarily using (experimental) surveys that lack consideration of the neighborhood context. Building on decades of research in the risk and decision sciences, the current study utilizes broader models of decision making to qualitatively examine how youth living in concentrated disadvantage make decisions during incidents of violence. Our thematic analysis of 22 in-depth interviews with youth in a midsize midwestern city indicates that the decision process regarding violence is much more complex than previously theorized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholarship on white-collar and corporate crime often notes that these crimes are complex due to their scale, longevity, and hidden, layered, and global nature. Embedded in these discursive descriptions is the assumption that complexity is unidimensional and operates solely in a linear fashion. Yet, corruption and transnational bribery are the results of a complex system that involves diverse actors interacting in dynamic environments, which can produce multiple classes of outcomes that may include different patterns of complexity in crime. In this paper, we empirically explore potential variability in patterns of complexity in transnational corporate bribery using official data from cases prosecuted under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in the United States. Our findings indicate that crime "complexity" can take different forms, suggesting that the relationship between variables can unfold in dynamic ways. Implications for theory and practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Violent crime tends to be concentrated in economically disadvantaged, racially minoritized communities, particularly among youth. Emerging research suggests that the COVID-19 pandemic may have exacerbated the drivers of violence in these communities but provides limited insight into its effects in a single locale, especially small to mid-size cities, and on those on the frontlines of youth violence (i.e., youth service workers). In the current study, we provide an in-depth, qualitative examination of these dynamics in vulnerable neighborhoods in Lansing, Michigan, centering the voices of those instrumental to violence prevention and community resilience. Specifically, we explore youth service providers' perceptions of how COVID-19 changed youth violence and impacted families, communities, and organizations working to prevent and control youth violence. We use the socioecological model adopted by the public health field to explain and prevent violence to guide our work, as this framework recognizes the interlocking and interactive effects of systemic, community, and relational experiences on youth behavior. As such, it allows us to situate community-based organizations and youth service providers' perceptions within the broader contexts that shape violence. Our findings suggest the need for increased support for community-based prevention and for interventions that rectify structural inequalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green criminologists have recently entered a period of self-assessment, critiquing the discursive nature of theory, over-reliance on case studies, and lack of interdisciplinarity in this area of study, and offering a variety of ideas on how to move forward. We propose using conservation criminology, a multi/interdisciplinary and problem-specific research framework, to expand upon exploratory work through empirical research with clearly defined parameters. We use the illegal wildlife trade (IWT) as an example of the potential benefits of this approach, as this body of literature reflects the critiques raised by green criminologists. We further encourage the replication of important studies and the use of common terminology to describe study parameters to build towards greater generalizability that can be tested through meta-analyses and systematic reviews. This approach will help to build a body of interdisciplinary literature that can inform the development of empirically driven policy to address IWT and other environmental crimes and risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Guided by the focal concerns perspective, the authors examine effects associated with sentencing predictors on incarceration and sentence length decisions for offenders convicted of white-collar and different forms of property crime. Using seven years of data (2004-2010) obtained from the Pennsylvania Commission on Sentencing, the authors compare direct and interaction effects of legal and extralegal covariates for whitecollar, property economic, and property noneconomic offenders to assess similarities and differences in sentencing outcomes across these crime types. Results indicate more variation exists between white-collar and property noneconomic offenders, particularly in terms of age, race, and gender interaction effects on sentence length decisions. Substantive and theoretical implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Minority groups are significantly overrepresented in crime. Theories of racial differences in crime developed using two separate and distinct approaches that highlighteitherincreased exposure to criminogenic factors at the individual levelorgreater risk of crime due to disadvantaged neighborhood conditions. Neighborhood theories describe how structural disadvantage disrupts neighborhood social processes and produces oppositional street cultures. In the article, we advance theorizing on race and crime by linking the neighborhood experience to individual-level decision making via new conceptualizations of culture. Rather than a “values as goals” view of culture, culture may include a “tool kit” of ways to solve problems and this cultural toolkit may, in turn, influence how an individual makes decisions. Specifically, culturally learned toolkits may increase flaws in the decision process (e.g., fast and intuitive rather than deliberate decision processes, the use of decision heuristics) to produce more crime, which would explain the association between race and crime. We integrate this conceptualization of culture and these flaws in the decision-making process into rational choice theory at the individual level and describe how they may be exacerbated in disadvantaged neighborhood contexts. Implications for understanding race and crime and directions for future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]