%0 Journal Article
%T Victimization, Urbanicity, and the Relevance of Context: School Routines, Race and Ethnicity, and Adolescent Violence
%A Anthony A. Peguero
%A Edwardo L. Portillos
%A Jun S. Hong
%A Juan Carlos Gonz¨˘lez
%A Lindsay L. Kahle
%A Zahra Shekarkhar
%J Journal of Criminology
%D 2013
%I Hindawi Publishing Corporation
%R 10.1155/2013/240637
%X The United States is undergoing a historical racial and ethnic demographic shift. There is limited criminological research exploring if and how these changes influence variation in the relationship between routine activity theory and adolescent violence. Although the link between routine activities and victimization has been tested and well established, criminologists have questioned if routine activities can explain adolescent violence across different social contexts. Prior research demonstrates that there are potential nuances in the theoretical connections between routine activities and victimization, particularly when considering race and ethnicity. This study builds on previous research by questioning if the elements of routine activities predict victimization across predominately urban, rural, and suburban schools. The implications of the relevance of school context in the relationships between routine activities and adolescent victimization will also be discussed more generally. 1. Introduction Routine activity theory is often utilized to investigate the insulating and risk factors linked to adolescent victimization. In essence, routine activities consider the characteristics of both offenders and victims and/or the characteristics of the space in which offenders and victims are likely to interact and consequently linked to the likelihood of criminal and delinquent activities [1¨C3]. Adolescents in the USA experience increased risk of criminal victimization, which typically occurs in schools where adolescents spend a significant portion of their lives [4, 5]. Understanding the factors linked to school victimization is imperative because schools are institutions where adolescent socialization takes place. Criminological research has repeatedly demonstrated that routine activity theory is an appropriate and effective theoretical framework that can explicate the occurrence of adolescent victimization at school [6, 7]. Recent findings, however, suggest distinctive nuances associated with race and ethnicity in the relationship between routine activities and school victimization [8]. Routine activities theorists have argued that sociodemographic differences (e.g., race, ethnicity, gender, and socioeconomic status) in victimization may be associated with distinct role expectations and structural constraints occurring in the USA [2, 9]. In other words, social and cultural norms might be associated with individualsĄŻ behaviors and daily routines that may lead an individual toward increased or decreased exposure to crime, violence, and victimization. Cohen
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jcrim/2013/240637/