Women constituted thirteen percent of the personnel. Data collected by officers' mobile data computers between 17 January 2000 and 31 March 2000 were used in the study. Consistent with the conflict theory, the authors tested whether racial and socioeconomic variables increased the likelihood of traffic stops, traffic stops resulting in search, and traffic stops resulting in summons of arrest. Ordinary least squares regression was used as the primary analytic tool to test the hypotheses. The research led to mixed results, challenging and confirming some of the hypotheses of conflict theorists. Traffic police of Richmond, Virginia were more likely to stop suspects in areas of high crime, regardless of race or socioeconomic factors. Traffic stops resulting in search, however, disproportionately targeted Black citizens than Whites. But the arrest summons resulting from traffic stops were lower for Blacks. The authors explain that police officers may not be aware of the citizen's race while stopping but are more likely to search Black citizens because of common perceptions in the neighborhood. But the arrest rates for Blacks are lower because of the lack of evidences police officers can find through searches. Vowell P, May D. Another Look at Classic Strain Theory: Poverty Status, Perceived Blocked Opportunity, and Gang Membership as Predictors of Adolescent Violent Behavior. Sociological Inquiry [serial online]. Winter2000 2000;70(1):42-60. Available from: Academic Search Premier, Ipswich, MA. Accessed March 13, 2012.

Structural-strain theory is used in criminological research and focuses on the relationship between adolescents' inability to achieve financial...

The study by Vowell and May (2000) builds upon the literature that questions the efficacy of structural-strain theory and offers a structural equations model as a better alternative to testing hypothesized sequence leading to delinquency. In their analysis of structural-strain theory, the authors argue that there is ample empirical evidence pointing to discrepancy in various operational findings derived from structural-strain theory. They primarily tested the validity of the following hypothesis: poverty status leads to perceived blocked opportunity, which leads to gang membership, which, in turn, leads to violence. The data for the research was collected by the Mississippi Crime and Justice Research Unit at the Social Science Research Center at Mississippi State University. The authors designed a sampling process to represent high school youth from urban and rural areas across the Mississippi state. In total 7,102 adolescents, 3,856 European-American and 3,246 African-American high school students, were used in the final sample. The independent variables for the study were gender, poverty status, perceived blocked opportunity, gang membership, and violent activities construct. The authors found that poverty status increased perceived blocked opportunity among European-Americans but not among African-Americans. The authors argue that is perhaps due do the fact that the former are fewer in percentage than the latter. Poverty had lesser effect on females than males among both racial groups. The authors suggest that the mixed results reveal the limits and…