Callie H. Burt

Georgia State University | GSU · Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology

In this paper we develop and test a new approach to explain the link between social factors and individual offending. We argue that seemingly disparate family, peer, and community conditions lead to crime because the lessons communicated by these events are similar and promote social schemas involving a hostile view of people and relationships, a p...

Dominant theoretical explanations of racial disparities in criminal offending overlook a key risk factor associated with race: interpersonal racial discrimination. Building on recent studies that analyze race and crime at the micro-level, we specify a social psychological model linking personal experiences with racial discrimination to an increased...

This study assesses self-control theory’s (Gottfredson & Hirschi 1990) stability postulate. We advance research on self-control stability in three ways. First, we extend the study of stability beyond high school, estimating group-based trajectory models (GBTM) of self-reports of self-control from age 10 to 25. Second, drawing in part on advances in...

The US Equality Act, which amends civil rights statutes to explicitly prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, passed the House in May 2019 with unanimous Democratic support. Adopting a feminist perspective, I scrutinize the act from a largely neglected position, one that supports both LGBTQ and sex-based righ...

Over the past several decades, Gottfredson & Hirschi's self-control theory (SCT) has dominated research on self-control and crime. In this review, I assess the current state of self-control knowledge and encourage the field to move beyond SCT, as its peculiar conceptualization of self-control and causal models presents challenges for integrative sc...

In their target article, Madole & Harden offer an account of "what it means for genes to be causes" of social outcomes to bolster their claim that genetics should be incorporated into social science with practical implications. Here I object to several key features of their arguments, their representation of the state of science, and claims about t...

In this response, I focus on clarifying my arguments, highlighting consensus, and addressing competing views about the utility of polygenic scores (PGSs) for social science. I also discuss an assortment of expansions to my arguments and suggest alternative approaches. I conclude by reiterating the need for caution and appropriate scientific skeptic...

Uchiyama et al. propose a unified model linking cultural evolutionary theory to behavior genetics (BG) to enhance generalizability, enrich explanation, and predict how social factors shape heritability estimates. A consideration of culture evolution is beneficial but insufficient for purpose. I submit that their proposed model is underdeveloped and...

In her recent article published in Sexuality & Culture, “This is my TERF! Lesbian Feminists and the Stigmatization of Trans Women,” Worthen focuses on feminist lesbians and their alleged “anti-trans” and “trans-exclusionary” beliefs. Analyzing a subsample of ‘cis women’ from a larger online survey, Worthen examines whether feminist lesbians “expres...

Cesario provides a compelling critique of the use of experimental social psychology to explain real-world group disparities. We concur with his targeted critique and extend “the problem of missing information” to another common measures of bias. We disagree with Cesario's broader argument that the entire enterprise be abandoned, suggesting instead...

The sociogenomics revolution is upon us, we are told. Whether revolutionary or not, sociogenomics is poised to flourish given the ease of incorporating polygenic scores (or PGSs) as ‘genetic propensities’ for complex traits into social science research. Pointing to evidence of ubiquitous heritability and the accessibility of genetic data, scholars...

In this article, I reply to comments on my 2020 article “Scrutinizing the Equality Act,” where I express support for the aims of the US Equality Act—providing federal non-discrimination protections to LGBT+ individuals—but opposition to its form. As currently formulated, the US Equality Act would extend federal non-discrimination protections to LGB...

Professing interactionist bio + social terminology, contemporary biocriminology asserts a break from its biologically essentialist past. Assurances notwithstanding, whether biocriminology has undergone a decisive paradigm shift rejecting notions of biological criminals and bad brains remains uncertain. Unfortunately, discussions of biocriminology's...

Genomic research led the way in open science, a tradition continued by genome-wide association studies (GWAS)—through the sharing of materials, results, and data. Coordinated quality control procedures also contributed to robust findings. However, recent years have seen declines in GWAS transparency. Here, we assess some shifts away from open scien...

Over the past several decades, Gottfredson & Hirschi's (1990) SCT has dominated research on self-control and crime. In this review, I assess the current state of self-control knowledge and encourage the field to move beyond SCT, as its peculiar conceptualization of self-control and causal model presents challenges for integrative scholarship. Drawi...

In this chapter, I examine the connections between interpersonal racial discrimination, cultural adaptations, including racial socialization, and crime. I focus on racialized experiences as risk factors for crime in the context of a racialized general theory of crime, the social schematic theory (SST), with a particular emphasis on the criminogenic...

Recent studies evince that interpersonal racial discrimination (IRD) increases the risk of crime among African Americans and familial racial socialization fosters resilience to discrimination's criminogenic effects. Yet, studies have focused on the short-term effects of IRD and racial socialization largely among adolescents. In this study, we seek...

Taking a “strength approach” to African American families and cultures, recent research demonstrates that familial racial socialization provides resilience to the criminogenic effects of interpersonal racial discrimination among Black youth. Building on these nascent findings, the present study takes a process-oriented approach to understand how ra...

An increasing amount of sociological research is directed at unpacking the social processes behind neighborhood effects on youth behavioral outcomes. The goal of the current study is to build upon these prior efforts and advance research on neighborhood cultural mechanisms and adolescent sexual-partnering behaviors. We formulate and test a series o...

Purpose: Heritability studies attempt to estimate the contribution of genes (vs. environments) to variation in phenotypes (or outcomes of interest) in a given population at a given time. The current chapter scrutinizes heritability studies of adverse health phenotypes, emphasizing flaws that have become more glaring in light of recent advances in t...

This paper argues that there is a pressing need to improve upon existing measures of Gottfredson and Hirschi’s (1990) conceptualization of self-control in order to more accurately test the theory and situate this construct in the larger body of work on self-control and decision-making. With the goal of pushing operationalizations of self-control in...

Objectives This study seeks to contribute to research on the patterning and stability of code of the street beliefs. We describe trajectories of street code beliefs from late childhood to emerging adulthood and investigate social factors that influence membership in and distinguish between trajectories. Methods Using six waves of panel data from t...

Evidence is accumulating that interpersonal racial discrimination is criminogenic and ethnic-racial socialization (ERS) practices provide resilience. This research, however, has largely focused on black males. We address this gap by exploring these risk and resilience processes among black females. Drawing on Simons and Burt’s social schematic theo...

In our recent paper “Pulling Back the Curtain on Heritability Studies: Biosocial Criminology in the Postgenomic Era,” we scrutinized heritability studies in criminology (Burt & Simons 2014). Drawing on recent advances in the life sciences, and echoing the calls of prominent scholars, we called for an end to heritability studies in criminology and r...

Criminologists’ understanding of peer influences has been greatly advanced by social network methods; however, relatively scant attention has been paid to improving measurement. In particular, research has continued to measure peer influence by averaging the level of delinquency within a peer network, thereby neglecting the role of behavioral heter...

Simons and Burt’s (2011) social schematic theory (SST) of crime posits that adverse social factors are associated with offending because they promote a set of social schemas (i.e., a criminogenic knowledge structure) that elevate the probability of situational definitions favorable to crime. The present study extends the SST model by incorporating...

Unfortunately, the nature versus nurture debate continues in criminology. Over the past five years there has been a surge of studies in criminology estimating the heritability of crime and related outcomes, which invariably report sizeable heritability estimates (~50%) and minimal to non-existent effects of the so-called shared environment. Reports...

Self-control theory (SCT), as a control theory, assumes that the pleasures gained from crime are equally obvious and attractive to all. This study brings a consideration of crime as a process into SCT, recognizing that the sensations inherent in offending may not be equally attractive to everyone. In doing so, we test the theory’s equal motivation...

Participation in risky sexual behaviors has many deleterious consequences and is a source of concern for parents as well as practitioners, researchers, and public policy makers. Past research has examined the effect of family structure and supportive parenting on risky sexual behaviors among emerging adults. In the present study, we attempt to iden...

This study focuses on the mechanisms whereby religiosity influences adolescent involvement in risky sexual behavior. The study hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling with a sample of approximately 2,100 undergraduates enrolled at two large state universities. Religious respondents reported a more conservative view of the circumst...

Recasting Durkheim's "community of saints" thesis, the authors argue that the severity of punishment is predicted in part by the prevalence of the deviant behavior of which the deviant stands accused. Although there is some curvilinearity at low levels of prevalence, the relationship is generally negative. Thus, all else equal, where a particular c...

This study uses structural equation modeling (SEM) with a sample of 760 college males to test various hypotheses regarding the avenues whereby harsh corporal punishment and a troubled relationship with parents increase the risk that a boy will grow up to engage in sexual coercion and dating violence. We found that three variables--a general antisoc...

Studies have shown that exposure to discrimination increases the probability that African American adolescents will engage in delinquent behavior, especially acts of violence. The present study extended this research by examining the extent to which supportive parenting buffers a youth from these deleterious consequences of discrimination. Analyses...

This study investigates two core propositions of Gottfredson and Hirschi's (1990) general theory of crime. Using longitudinal data collected on approximately 750 African American children and their primary caregivers, we first examine whether self-control fully mediates the effect of parenting on delinquency. Consistent with the general theory, we...

In this paper, we develop and test hypotheses on how authoritative parenting and collective efficacy combine to increase a child's risk of affiliating with deviant peers and engaging in delinquent behavior. Analyses using two waves of data from a sample of several hundred African American caregivers and their children largely supported the predicti...

Using data from the National Violence Against Women Survey, the authors examine whether rapes committed after reforms were more likely to be reported to police than those committed before reforms. The authors also consider whether the gap between the reporting of simple versus aggravated rape has narrowed. They find that rapes committed after 1990...

How can General Strain Theory (GST) explain why more males than females commit crime (the sex gap) as well as male and female criminality? I propose that gender identity conditions the relationship between the motivation to crime (strain) and delinquency. I argue that feminine gender identities constrain individuals from most delinquent behaviors,...