Neighborhood Disadvantage and Gender Among Former Inmates:
Differential Relationships to Feeling Connected to the Community
Johanna Folk, Carle Wirshba, Ashley Dobbins, June Tangney, Jeffrey Stuewig
ABSTRACT
Upon release from jail, individuals return to
communities ranging in neighborhood disadvantage
(e.g., % of households receiving public assistance,
unemployment). Among 201 former jail inmates,
neighborhood disadvantage positively related to
connectedness to the criminal community for men and
to connectedness to the community at large for women.
No racial differences emerged.
INTRODUCTION
• Community connectedness is an individual-level social
identity construct defined as the inclusion of a
community in the self. This conceptual definition
stems from the self-expansion model (Aron & Aron, 1986).
• Connectedness to the community at large prior to
release from jail positively predicts adaptive
functioning in the community during the first year
post-release, whereas connectedness to the criminal
community predicts recidivism (Folk et al., 2015).
• Q1: Are characteristics of the neighborhood one returns
to following incarceration related to connectedness to
the community at large and the criminal community?
- Individuals who live in neighborhoods with greater
contextual risk may feel more highly connected to
the criminal community due to greater exposure.
• Q2: Does this relation generalize across sex and race?
- Men and women may adopt different social roles in
disadvantaged communities and be connected to
different communities.
- No race difference were anticipated.
PARTICIPANTS
•
•
•
•
•
201 inmates released from a county jail
65.7% Men
Age ranged from 18 to 69 years (M = 33.6, SD = 10.2)
43.3% Black, 36.8% White, 6.0% Hispanic/Latino,
4.5% Asian/ Pacific Islander, and 9.4% Other
MEASURES
GENDER AND RACE DIFFERENCES
Neighborhood Disadvantage
• 2000 Census Data (tract level) – based on
self-reported address at one-year post-release.
• The neighborhood disadvantage variable is the
z-score of the mean of four indicators:
- % of households receiving public assistance
- % of the population with income below the
federal poverty level in 1999
- % of civilian population age 16 or older in the
labor force who were unemployed
- % of households with children headed by a
woman
Community Connectedness
• Inclusion of Community in Self (ICS) scale (Mashek,
Cannady, & Tangney, 2007) – verbal version.
• Participants were asked how connected they feel to:
- Community at Large: “all the people in your
town, city, or county; people in general;
people who live on the outside and who do not
commit crimes.”
- Criminal Community: “people who commit
crimes whether they are in jail, prison, or
living on the outside.”
• Likert scale: 1 = not at all connected to 6 = as
connected as possible
NEIGHBORHOOD DISADVANTAGE
AND CONNECTEDNESS
• Neighborhood disadvantage was:
- Not significantly correlated with connectedness to
the community at large, r (201) = .08, p = .29
Connectedness to Connectedness to
the Community at
the Criminal
Large
Community
Men (n = 132)
Neighborhood
Disadvantage
-.04
.24**
.26*
.01
White (n = 74)
.04
.06
Black (n = 84)
.04
.13
Women (n = 69)
Note. **p < .01; *p < .05
• Difference between independent correlation coefficients
• Gender:
- Community at Large: z = -2.00, p = .05
- Criminal Community: z = 1.51, p = .13
• Race:
- Community at Large: z = -0.04, p = .97
- Criminal Community: z = -0.46, p =.65
DISCUSSION
• In disadvantaged neighborhoods, women tend to
head households and care for children, which may
connect them to more prosocial institutions such as
schools and community centers where they associate
with members of the community at large.
• Women in less disadvantaged communities may
experience stigma due to their criminal record,
isolating them from the community at large.
- Positively correlated with connectedness to the
criminal community, r (201) = .15, p = .03
• In neighborhoods with higher levels of unemployment
and poverty, unstructured time and need for money
may lead men to engage in criminal activity for
financial support, connecting them with members of
the criminal community.
This research was supported by Grants from the National Institute on Drug
Abuse R01 DA14694 the to June P. Tangney and Jeff Stuewig and
1F31DA039620-01 to Johanna Folk. Many thanks to members of the
Human Emotions Research Lab for their invaluable assistance. We are
grateful for the assistance participants in our study.
• Future directions:
- Causal direction of relationship
- Role of intersecting identities (e.g., Black females vs.
White males)
- Impact on behavior