cjrc-sponsored research

  • Project:
  • Event Dynamics and the Role of Third Parties in Youth Violence

  • Investigator:
  • Deanna L. Wilkinson (Human Development and Family Science)

  • Sponsor:
  • U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice (funded, 2006-2008)

  • Abstract:
  • The proposed research will examine the situational aspects of violence among urban youth to expand existing perspectives on offender decision making in conflict situations, the roles of third parties in violence, and the application of the principles of situational crime prevention to violent crime. The project will capitalize on analyses of an existing event-level dataset that consists of a sample of 780 violent or near-violent events reported by 417 male minority youths (mean age 19.5) in New York City from 1995-1998. The event dataset includes 345 gun events. The study will employ qualitative data analysis techniques including a grounded theory approach and event structure analysis. A major focus of the project will be to develop concrete recommendations for policy and practice relying heavily on the situational crime prevention framework.

  • Research on violent events has demonstrated that the likelihood of violence reflects the progression of decisions across a series of identifiable stages with contingencies at each stage that are shaped by external influences and social interactions of the actors. Yet the data have generally not been available to answer more useful questions such as what the contingencies are, how actors take them into account, and how they vary as an event progresses through these stages. Although prior studies provide generalized classifications of violent event stages, a finer-tuned assessment of the actions and reactions of actors in violent encounters that is possible from detailed event narratives will shed new light on the micro-level decisions and contextual influences across a range of types of violent encounters. The findings will be used to develop a typology of the procedural Ascripts of violence.

  • Third parties witness or somehow become involved in an estimated two-thirds of interpersonal violence in the United States. Previous research concludes that bystanders and third parties contribute significantly to the outcome of violent encounters yet empirical research about the specific contributions that third parties make in promoting or preventing the escalation of interpersonal conflict to violence is rare. The study will test Black’s theory of third parties.

  • Products:

Wilkinson, D. L. 2007. “Local social ties and willingness to intervene: Textured views among violent urban youth of neighborhood social control dynamics and situations.” Justice Quarterly. 24(2):185-220.

Fagan, J., Wilkinson, D.L., and Davies, G. 2007. “Social Contagion of Violence.” Pp. 688-723 in The Cambridge Handbook of Violent Behavior and Aggression, edited by D. Flannery, A. Vazsonyi, & I. Waldman, I. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Commissioned paper:
Wilkinson, D.L. and Bell, Kerryn. (September 30, 2006). “Urban Gun Homicide and Youth Violence: Perspectives from Trends in the United States and Violent NYC Youth.” Commissioned by The Small Arms Survey Yearbook, portions published in the 2007 Yearbook, see pages 165-168. Geneva, Switzerland.

Papers under review:
Wilkinson, D.L., Magora, A., & Garcia, M. “Fathering from the Margins of Society.” Journal of Family Issues.

Wilkinson, D.L. and Carr, P.J. “Violent youths responses to high levels of exposure to community violence: What violent events reveal about youth violence.” R & R status at Journal of Community Psychology.

Papers under review:
Wilkinson, D.L. The games young men play: Sexual competition as a spark for male-on-male adolescent violence. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency.

Wilkinson, D.L., Seipel, L., Saunders, J.S., Mitchell, R. Smeltzer, M. & Lamarre, B. Researcher-practitioners communication toward identifying the gap between theory, science and practice in youth violence prevention. (community partners are co-authors)

Wilkinson, D.L., Battee, D., & Beaty, C. Understanding the heterogeneity of youth violence: An emergent typology

Wilkinson, D.L. How do situational factors matter in youth violence: The contingencies of situational factors in youth violence

Wilkinson, D.L. Sequential patterns in youth violence: Understanding the microtransactional level

Wilkinson, D.L. Crews, crowds, bystanders, and authorities: Third party roles in youth violence

Wilkinson, D.L. The relevance of situational crime prevention for preventing youth violence

Wilkinson, D.L. & Erdem, G. Decision making in robbery events.

Wilkinson, D.L. Revenge, street justice and the co-offending process in youth violence.

  • Community Engagement:
  • Appointed Member, Major Coleman's Neighborhood Safety Working Group (NSWG)

  • Appointed Member NSWG Social Services committee

  • Appointed Member NSWG Data Collection committee

  • Participant, Neighborhood Safety Working Group and Collective Action for Youth and Neighborhood Development (CAYND) ambassadors program

  • Member, Board of Directors, Strategies Against Violence Everywhere (SAVE), Columbus, Ohio