Working Papers
Head injury, sleep disturbance, and delinquent offending: Evidence from a longitudinal sample of juvenile detainees (with Dr. Eric J. Connolly)
Research reports that a disproportionate number of juvenile youths report a head injury, and that head injury is associated with reoffending. However, little is currently known about the role of resulting symptoms of head injury that may condition this relationship. One common symptom is sleep disturbance as head injury is argued to damage regions of the brain involved in sleep regulation. The current study analyzes longitudinal data from the Northwestern Juvenile Project (NJP) to: 1) examine associations between head injury and delinquency; 2) assess the moderating role of sleep disturbance, and; 3) test whether associations vary across males and females.
Under review
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Winner of the 2023 American Society of Criminology's Division of Biopsychosocial Criminology's Rolf Loeber Student Innovation Award
Sports Involvement, Head Injury, and Delinquency: Evidence from a Sample of Juvenile Justice Involved Youth (with Dr. Eric J. Connolly)
Previous research suggests that youth sports participation is moderately associated with lower delinquency. However, little is known about whether head injury dampens this protective role of sports involvement. The current study analyzes data from a sample of justice involved youth to: 1) examine the relationship between sports involvement and head injury, 2) assess whether groups of sports involved youth with and without a head injury are related to general, violent, and/or nonviolent delinquency, and 3) examine potential sex differences in these group differences. Results suggest that sports participation is not associated with head injury. Non-sports involved youth with a head injury report higher levels of general and violent delinquency compared to non-sports involved youth without a head injury. Sports involved females with a head injury report higher levels of general and violent delinquency compared to sports involved males with a head injury. Implications and avenues for future research are discussed.
Under review
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Peer-Reviewed Publications
2023
Frequency of Adequate Sleep and Different Forms of Delinquency Across Adolescence: Evidence from Nationally Representative Samples of Youth (with Dr. Eric J. Connolly)
An emerging body of research documents a relationship between sleep quantity and delinquency during adolescence. Absent from this line of research, however, is an evaluation of whether the associations between sleep duration and different forms of delinquency vary across periods of adolescence and sex. The current study aimed to address this gap in the body of literature by analyzing data from nationally representative samples of 8th, 10th, and 12th graders from the 2010-2019 Monitoring the Future (MTF) surveys. Multivariate regression models reveal that the relations between getting less than 7 hours of sleep and violent and non-violent delinquent behavior varied across grade level. Specifically, associations between less sleep and forms of delinquency were stronger for males in grades 8 and 10 compared to males in grade 12 or females. Implications of the results for future research and policies designed to increase sleep quantity during adolescent development are discussed.
Published in Youth & Society
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Examining PM2.5 Concentrations in Counties with and without State-Run Correctional Facilities in Texas
A high percentage of people who are incarcerated suffer from health problems that affect them both in prison and after they are released. Environmental hazards and pollutants can exacerbate these problems as well as contribute to the development of new health conditions. One specific type of pollutant that is associated with a wide array of health problems including decreased lung function, cancer, and asthma is particulate matter smaller than 2.5 micrometers (PM2.5). While prior research indicates that PM2.5 is not equally distributed throughout space, it remains unknown if levels of PM2.5 differ in areas with and without correctional facilities. The current study aims to address this gap by examining if counties with state-run correctional facilities have higher concentrations of PM2.5 relative to counties without state-run correctional facilities in Texas. Results of OLS regression models indicate that counties with one or more state-run correctional facilities have higher concentrations of PM2.5 relative to counties without these facilities. These findings highlight the importance of improving prison healthcare and addressing issues of environmental injustice in correctional facilities.
Published in Punishment & Society
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The Association between Professional Sporting Events and Police Calls for Service in San Antonio, Texas (with Ryan Bagwell, Dr. Wanda Leal, and Dr. Alex Piquero)
The influence of sporting events on crime is an important but under-researched area in criminology. Although this literature is growing, it mostly focuses on whether crime changes in the city/area where a sporting event is taking place. Thus, it is unclear whether crime in a different city/state can be affected by airing a sporting event on television. The current study contributes to the literature by investigating the impact of televised professional sporting events by the NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL on calls for police service in San Antonio, Texas. Specifically, this study examines whether five categories of police calls for service in San Antonio increase or decrease on days in which NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL games take place compared to days with no games. This study examines this association between March 2020 and March 2021 during which in-person sporting events were not permitted in San Antonio because of COVID-19 restrictions. Results indicate that days with particular sporting events are associated with increases in certain calls for police service, while others are associated with decreases. Our findings suggest that police departments may consider increased patrol on days that certain sporting events take place.
Published in Journal of Crime and Justice
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2022
The Role of Poor Sleep on the Association Between Self-Control and Antisocial Behavior From Adolescence to Adulthood (With Drs. Eric J. Connolly and Joseph A. Schwartz)
Objectives: Much remains unknown about the potential role of changes in poor sleep on the well-established association between changes in components of low self-control, such as impulsivity and sensation seeking, and antisocial behavior from adolescence to adulthood.
Methods: A series of dynamic panel models with prospective data from a population-based sample of youth (n = 1,922) are estimated to assess the moderating role of within-individual changes in poor sleep quality on within-individual changes in impulsivity, sensation seeking, and antisocial behavior from ages 16 to 27.
Results: The relation between within-individual changes in sensation seeking and antisocial behavior from ages 16 to 27 increases when paired with poor sleep, but this same pattern was not observed for the relationship between impulsivity and antisocial behavior. Supplemental analyses reveal that changes in poor sleep are associated with changes in impulsivity and sensation seeking, suggesting a reciprocal dynamic between sleep and dimensions of self-control over time.
Conclusions: Within-individual increases in poor sleep strengthen the association between sensation seeking and antisocial behavior during the transition from adolescence to young adulthood. Additional evidence suggests that within-individual changes in sleep are also related to changes in impulsivity and sensation seeking during this transition.
Published in Journal of Criminal Justice
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Testing the Cinderella Effect: Measuring Victim Injury in Child Abuse Cases (with Dr. Jacob Kaplan)
Past research finds that stepparents harm and kill their partner’s children at higher rates than biological parents do to their own children, a phenomenon called the “Cinderella effect.” Yet one major limitation of these studies is that reporting biases may account for a large share of the effect observed if reporting rates differ based on the victim-offender relationship. As abuse cases with serious injuries are more likely to be disclosed to police than ones with no injuries or minor injuries, using cases where the victim is seriously injured allows us to minimize the impact of differential reporting. Using data from the FBI’s National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) which covers over 500,000 cases of child abuse from 1991 through 2019, we find that, relative to biological parents, unmarried partners, but not stepparents, are significantly more likely to seriously injure the child, partially supporting the Cinderella effect.
Published in Journal of Criminal Justice
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An Analysis of National Hockey League Playoff Games and City-Level Crime Counts (with Dr. Jacob Kaplan)
Past research indicates that when professional sports games are played, crime increases. Yet, little is known about how playoff games affect crime. As many criminal events associated with sports games, such as riots, occur during playoff games, this is an important gap in the literature. Using data from 15 National Hockey League (NHL) teams from 2013 through 2019, we examine how assault, disorder, and property crimes change when playoff games are played at home relative to when they are played away. We find that during home games there are 7% more disorder crimes and 4% more property crimes than during away games which suggests that city responses to playoff hockey games should prioritize crime reduction strategies to improve public safety.
Published in Crime & Delinquency
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2021
Professional Sports and Crime: Do Professional Hockey Games Increase City-Level Crime Rates?
Previous research has found that sports games increase certain crimes including theft and vandalism, but the relationship between sports and other offenses such as motor vehicle theft, robbery, and assaults is mixed. Using regular season National Hockey League (NHL) game data and city-level, incident-level crime data from four large U.S. cities, this paper estimates if professional ice hockey games played at home is associated with increases in property crimes, alcohol-related crimes, and assaults during and right after games the over course of four NHL seasons. Results show that NHL games lead to small but significant increases in property crimes and assaults. There is no significant effect for alcohol-related crimes. Implications and suggestions for future work are discussed.
Published in Crime & Delinquency
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Winner of the 2021 American Society of Criminology's Division of Experimental Criminology's Student Paper Award
