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Predicting Consistency Between Officially Recorded and Self-Reported Records of Arrest

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Abstract

National Youth Survey Family Study (NYSFS) respondents were examined to identify the characteristics of individuals and their sociological environments, that would make them more likely to have consistency between self reported and officially recorded records of arrest. Somewhat surprisingly, it was found that those most likely to be at risk of arrest (males, high exposure to delinquent friends, higher level of substance use) are more likely to have consistency between officially recorded and self-reported arrests. Findings will be helpful in both producing more accurate information on arrests and in increasing sensitivity to the possibility of bias in arrest records that may be based on sociodemographic or behavioral characteristics of the individual.

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Notes

  1. It should be noted that incarceration does not necessarily result in attrition for NYSFS respondents, as incarcerated individuals are also interviewed if possible.

  2. Note that the Hollingshead and Redlich (1958) measure of SES uses a person’s academic attainment (number of years completed in school), while our measure of academic achievement uses estimated grades in school. Therefore, these two variables do not measure the same thing (i.e. there is no collinearity between these two measures). VIF and tolerance scores were run on all independent variables. VIF scores ranged from 1.092 to 1.487 and tolerance scores ranged from .916 to .673, again indicating no collinearity between any variables in any of the models.

  3. Index offenses include the following: felony assault (sexual assault, aggravated assault, and gang fighting), robbery (using force or threat of force to take something), and felony theft (motor vehicle theft, burglary, and theft of something worth more than $50).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Social Sciences, Texas A&M University - Corpus Christi, 6300 Ocean Drive, Corpus Christi, TX, 78412, USA

    Wendi Pollock

  2. Department of Government, Stephen F. Austin State University, Box 13045 SFA Station, Nacogdoches, TX, 75962, USA

    Milton C. Hill

  3. College of Criminal Justice, Sam Houston State University, Box 2296, Huntsville, TX, 77341-2296, USA

    Scott Menard

  4. Institute of Behavioral Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder, 438 UCB, Boulder, CO, 80309-0483, USA

    Delbert S. Elliott

Authors
  1. Wendi Pollock
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  2. Milton C. Hill
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  3. Scott Menard
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  4. Delbert S. Elliott
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Wendi Pollock.

Appendix

Appendix

Table 4

Table 4 Multinomial models by gender and race
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Pollock, W., Hill, M.C., Menard, S. et al. Predicting Consistency Between Officially Recorded and Self-Reported Records of Arrest. Am J Crim Just 41, 623–644 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12103-016-9343-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12103-016-9343-9

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