EAGER: Rational Choice in the Real World: Unpacking Neighborhood Influences on the Decision Process for Youth Violence

在犯罪学中，理性选择理论提供了研究人员试图理解与犯罪有关的决策过程的主导框架。理性选择理论的传统研究假设潜在的罪犯更喜欢犯罪，因此只计算其成本和收益来决定是否实施犯罪，然而，人们对完整的、更微妙的决策过程（来自决策科学）如何在实际的犯罪事件中发挥作用，以及生活在导致社区暴力高发的集中劣势地区是如何形成的知之甚少。这种疏忽可能会扭曲我们对违法者的看法，并基于错误的假设制定不那么有效的政策。这个EAGER项目的总体目标是打开决策过程的黑匣子，因为它在生活在弱势社区的青年暴力事件中展开。这一基础科学可以通过借鉴那些在与犯罪相关的现实世界背景中航行的人的见解来促进对所有形式犯罪的理解，以了解社区在决策过程中的作用。除了这些理论见解外，该项目还将为减少青年暴力的努力提供信息，方法是针对决策过程的具体组成部分提供决策援助，并寻求改变产生这种结果的背景。为加强这项工作的影响，将为学生和一名博士后研究员提供研究和专业发展机会，与来自受社区暴力影响最严重的社区的社区咨询委员会合作，并建立一个技术咨询委员会，为传播计划提供信息。研究小组将从对居住在密歇根州兰辛贫困社区的18至24岁青年的多次采访中收集数据，研究暴力事件中的决策过程如何运作，以及环境对其的影响。访谈协议将使用归纳和演绎技术得出，并提出一种编码方案，以构建青少年决策过程及其邻里影响的心理模型。这项工作的完成将为犯罪学领域提供一个最新的选择框架，以增进对决策和暴力的理解，并为主要应对犯罪的相关政策提供信息，就好像犯罪与犯罪发生的社会环境无关一样。我们必须解决犯罪学理论的这一问题，因为目前的政策（例如，大规模监禁）对已经被边缘化的社会阶层（即，该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Within Criminology, rational choice theory provides the dominant framework by which researchers have attempted to understand the decision process as it relates to crime. Traditional examinations of rational choice theory have assumed that would-be criminals prefer crime and therefore only calculate its costs and benefits to decide whether to commit it. However, little is known about how the full, more nuanced decision process (from decision sciences) plays out in actual criminal incidents or how it is shaped by living in areas of concentrated disadvantage that contribute to high rates of community violence. This omission can distort how we view offenders and produce less effective policy based on faulty assumptions. The overarching goal of this EAGER project is to unpack the black box of the decision process as it unfolds in incidents of violence among youth living in disadvantaged neighborhoods. This basic science can advance understanding of all forms of crime by drawing on insights from those navigating the real-world contexts associated with crime to understand the role of neighborhoods in the decision process. In addition to these theoretical insights, this project will inform efforts to reduce youth violence through decision aiding that targets specific components of the decision process and by seeking to change the contexts that produce such outcomes. The impact of this work will be enhanced by providing students and a postdoctoral fellow with research and professional development opportunities, partnering with a community advisory board from the communities most impacted by community violence, and creating a technical advisory board to inform the dissemination plan.To achieve project goals, the research team will collect data from multiple interviews with youth ages 18 to 24 residing in disadvantaged neighborhoods in Lansing, Michigan, to examine how the decision process operates during violent incidents and the contextual influences on it. Interview protocols will be derived using inductive and deductive techniques, and a coding scheme will be developed to construct mental models of youth’s decision process and its neighborhood influences. Completion of this work will produce an updated choice framework to the field of Criminology to improve understanding of decision-making and violence and inform related policies that largely respond to crime as though it is unrelated to the social milieu in which it occurs. It is imperative that we address this problematic aspect of criminological theory, as current policies (e.g., mass incarceration) are detrimental to an already marginalized segment of society (i.e., young Black males) for whom we tend to overlook the complexity of decision processes.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.