Running head: URBAN POVERTY COMPARISON ESSAY

Urban Poverty Comparison Essay

Rebecca Oshinbanjo
University of Texas at El Paso

URBAN POVERTY COMPARISON ESSAY

Throughout time, there have been many studies that concentrate on Juvenile delinquency.
Juvenile delinquency is a problem, particularly in urban neighborhoods that are economically
disadvantaged. The article Social Contexts and Urban Adolescent outcomes: the Interrelated
Effects of Neighborhood, Family, and Peers on African American Youth by Bruce H. Rankin of
Koc University and James M. Ouane of Harvard University mentions delinquency using African
American families, particularly in poor neighborhoods as their focus group. Additionally, the
article Urban Poverty and the Family context of delinquency: A New Look at Structure and
Process in a Classic Study by Robert J. Sampson and John H. Laub examines delinquency
among adolescent by reanalyzing Gluecks original data of central Boston. Both of these articles
analyzed different populations to find the course and solutions to juvenile delinquency.
The article Social Contexts and Urban Adolescent outcomes: the Interrelated Effects of
Neighborhood, Family, and Peers on African American Youth was designed to test various
pathways in which neighborhood influence youth, both directly and indirectly through impact of
their family and peers. Rankin and Quanes 2002 study made use of African American families
given that they are frequently the object of public concern over their exposure to high levels of
developmental risk, particularly in high poverty neighborhoods. (Rankin & Quane 2002, p. 80)
This study made use of the Samson (1999) and Wellman (1977) studies to emphasize the
significance of neighborhood in the social life of urban dwellers (Rankin & Quane 2002, p. 80).
Rankin and Quane see that education outcomes are influenced by neighborhood socioeconomic
status. As one of the studies explains adolescents residing in neighborhoods composed of adults
with higher social economic status achieve better grades and higher educational attainment and
are less likely to drop out of school. (Rankin & Quane 2002, p. 80) Rankin and Quane review

URBAN POVERTY COMPARISON ESSAY

various factors associated with various parenting practices. According to the study children
growing up in poverty do worse than those in affluent families on a variety of health, cognitive,
social and behavior outcomes. (Rankin & Quane 2002, p. 81) Authoritative parenting in which
parents give their children rules and regulations and closely supervise the movements of their
children while giving space for some level of independence produces positive change in the
juveniles and reduces levels of deviancy.
Ranking and Quane also examine single parenthood as another factor associated with
adolescent delinquency, single parenthood, low educational attainment, welfare dependence in
addition to socioeconomic and structural characteristics also makes a difference in the lives of
the children. (Rankin & Quane 2002, p. 82) The article explains that single parents have less
parenting involvement in their childrens life especially when there are two or more children,
thereby giving the children more independence which creates a greater chance of adolescent
misconduct.
Rankin and Quane, after reanalyzing some of the other theories are able to establish that
a successful transition to adulthood requires both a commitment to gaining competency in
various conventional tasks and an avoidance of problem behavior that can lead to problems in
life. (Rankin & Quane 2002, p. 85) The various researches used in this article are able to portray
the two different kinds of youth outcomes, which are successful outcome youth and problematic
outcome youth by using the African American children in Chicago in their sample. The article
showcases neighborhoods effects on parenting and explains the different kinds of families based
on socioeconomic and family structure factors and thereby relating it to the influence of peers. A
series of two hierarchical linear models were analyzed to present families managing their
children as a function of neighborhood, family background and youth demographic

URBAN POVERTY COMPARISON ESSAY

characteristics. (Rankin & Quane 2002, p. 88) Finally, Rankin and Quane concluded that the
process by which neighborhoods impact children is highly contingent (Rankin & Quane 2002,
p. 95) as it requires a deeper understanding of the interaction between environmental conditions,
parenting style and characteristics of children, as any dismissal of neighborhood as an important
developmental context will make any policies designed to promote a healthier environment
ineffective.
The article Urban Poverty and The family Context of Delinquency by Robert J. Sampson
a professor of social sciences and the director of the Boston Area Research institute and John H.
Laub who is also a professor in Northeast University was a study conducted to analyze the direct
effects parents have on their childrens delinquent behavior. Their study reconstructed the
Gluecks original data which consist of about 500 boys from a small area of Boston. Sampson
and Laub made use of the Glueck data because they realized that they would not be able to
recreate the study with the same detailed information of the subjects that was collected at the
time.
Sampson and Laubs theory was concentrated on poverty and structural disadvantages
influencing delinquency by reducing the capacity of families to achieve informal social control
on their children. Some other theoretical frame works were also used to back up their study such
as McLoyd( 1990), and Larzelere & Pattern (1990) which further explains that structural
background factors influence delinquency largely through mediating dimensions of family
processes. (Sampson & Laaub 1994, p. 525) Their theory explains that poverty and economic
loss reduces the ability for supportive, consistent and involved parenting. They found out that
economically disadvantaged parents who experience stress are likely to use punitive coercive

URBAN POVERTY COMPARISON ESSAY

parenting style (Samson & Laub 1994, p. 525) as opposed to reasoning and negotiation which
somehow contributes to adolescent misconduct.
By reconsidering family effect, Samson and Laub analyzed children who are antisocial by
using the White Et Al 1990 theory. They found that teacher and/or parent reported behavioral
measure of hyperactive and restlessness as a young child of age 3. (Sampson & Laub 1994, p.
525) Inability to manage the child at that age leads to continual exhibition of problem to age 5 is
a predicated future antisocial outcome. Thereby emphasizing that the reaction of the parent
towards this behavior at the early stage goes a long way to determine the future outcome of the
child.
After reanalyzing theories and data, Samson and Laub had the relationships in the
expected directions as delinquency declined with increased level of supervision and parental
attachment. (Samson & Laub 1994, p. 532) The result supported the theory by showing that
erratic, threatening and harsh discipline, low supervision and weak parental attachment facilitates
the negative effects of poverty and other structural factors on teenage delinquency. Their study
was able to conclude that a solution to adolescent misconduct is found in the behavioral pattern
of the family. (Sampson & Laub 1994, p. 532)
Both articles see juvenile delinquency as a growing problem in the urban communities,
they both address poverty as an irremovable contributor to juvenile delinquency. The articles
explain that structural disadvantage limits the ability of parents to exercise effective family
management practices. The first article made use of African American families to conduct their
study. It specifically address the issue of single parenting, especially when more than one child is
involved, there is limit to what a single parent can do when it comes to avoiding delinquent
attitudes among the children. It also considered the effect of the environment families reside in

URBAN POVERTY COMPARISON ESSAY

and its effect on their childrens behavior by comparing the outcome of children living in the
poor neighborhoods with children in good living conditions. The second article specifically
considered children with antisocial attitudes as they tend to require extra efforts on the parts of
the parents, starting from their early age of about 3 years old and then more attention as they
grow up in order to avoid delinquency. The second article concluded that the ability to avoid
juvenile delinquency is largely dependent on the behavioral pattern of the family despite their
economic conditions. These articles tend to identify family patterns that accommodate future
misconduct of their children and also provide ways in which families can prevent more
occurrences of juvenile delinquency. In conclusion, the Ranking & Quain 2002 study gave a
larger concept of juvenile delinquency as it does not find the parents and their economic status
completely responsible for their childrens proclivity for delinquent but it also sees
neighborhoods and peers as contributors which is more realistic, making their solution more
effective in the real world.

URBAN POVERTY COMPARISON ESSAY

References
Rankin, B. H., & Quane, J. M. (2002). Social contexts and urban adolescent outcomes: The
interrelated effects of neighborhoods, families, and peers on African-American youth.
Social Problems, 49(1), 79-100. Retrieved from
http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/sp.2002.49.1.79
This article discusses delinquency among youths by explaining the root causes, carrying out
experiment among African American families and coming up with possible solutions to the
various problems to adolescent misconduct. Rankin and Quane in this article explained the role
of parents in the life of their children and specifically how various factors tend to limit their
efforts towards raising a successful young adult. Their sociological theory made use of other
studies to back up their claims as they discussed education, environment, peers and how they
render parental effort worthless. I used this article because it discusses an important cause of
adolescent misconduct which helped support my argument in the essay that parents are not the
only cause or solution to juvenile misbehavior. Rankin and Quane pointed out an important
determinant of youth outcome which is the environment by explaining that childrens friends,
peers, and acquaintances tends to undermine the parental efforts to teach their child moral
lessons. Their theory gave me an insight to unnoticed element while reading previous article on
adolescent delinquency and which made it distinct. Their theory made use of more recent data
which made their results more reliable compared to the others I have read on delinquency.

URBAN POVERTY COMPARISON ESSAY

Sampson, R. J., & Laub, J. H. (1994). Urban poverty and the family context of delinquency: A
new look at structure and process in a classic study. Child Development, 65(2, Children
and Poverty), 523-540. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/1131400
This article is an eye opener to the huge responsibility that lies on the
shoulder of parents as they strive to teach their children the right way of life so that
they can become better persons and be a productive citizen of society. Sampson
and Laub based their study around poverty and how it tends to limit the ability of
parents to exercise the needed control over their children. They also explained how
family structure contributes to the up rearing of children by explaining that the
probability of abnormality increases when the bond that holds children to the
society is weak or broken. Their theory reconstructed the old Glueck data to come
up with their own conclusion. This was one of the reasons their theory lost some of
its relevance in solving misconduct among juveniles today. I made use of this article
because it discusses in detail an important limitation to parental effort, which is
poverty and how it affects the up bring of children. Though the theory was not as
detailed as the Rankin and Quanes theory, it was able to explain to some extent
the causes and solutions to juvenile misconduct even though it was limited to the
family structure and poverty.