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. 2011 Dec;101 Suppl 1(Suppl 1):S325-32.
doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2010.300034. Epub 2011 Jul 21.

Neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage and the shape of the age-crime curve

Anthony Fabio  1 , Li-Chuan Tu, Rolf Loeber, Jacqueline Cohen
Affiliations

Neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage and the shape of the age-crime curve

Anthony Fabio et al. Am J Public Health. 2011 Dec.

Abstract

Objectives: We sought to better determine the way in which neighborhood disadvantage affects the shape of the age-crime curve.

Methods: We used data from the Pittsburgh Youth Study (PYS), a 14-year longitudinal study, to compare the age-crime curves of individuals in neighborhoods of different disadvantage. We visually compared observed age-crime curves, and then used generalized linear mixed models to test for differences in curve parameters.

Results: Adjusted for individual risk factors, the mixed models found that the parameters for interactions of neighborhood disadvantage with both linear age and quadratic age were significant (P < .05) and consistent with higher and longer age-crime curves in more disadvantaged neighborhoods. This implied that compared with boys in advantaged neighborhoods, rates of violence among boys in disadvantaged neighborhoods rose to higher levels that were sustained significantly longer.

Conclusions: These results suggested that residing in a disadvantaged neighborhood during early adolescence may have an enduring effect on the shape of the age-crime curve throughout an individual's life.

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Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Age–crime curves (3-year smoothed average) of percentage of youths active in serious violence, by disadvantage level of baseline residence neighborhood at age 13 years: Pittsburgh Youth Study, Pittsburgh, PA, 1988. Note. PH = public housing. aAt least 50% of housing units within disadvantaged neighborhoods are public housing.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Generalized linear mixed model estimates of expected age–crime curves for percentage of individuals involved in serious violence, by disadvantage level of baseline residence neighborhood at age 13 years: Pittsburgh Youth Study, Pittsburgh, PA 1988. Note. PH = public housing. aAt least 50% of housing units within disadvantaged neighborhoods are public housing.
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