moderated the relationships between the different types of strain and crime, both drug- related and non-drug related. Three factors were examined in the analyses, as the intent was to determine if the relationship between strain and crime varied by participant’s level of social support, coping skills, and spiritual well-being. For RQ6, it was hypothesized that all three of the factors would moderate the relationship between economic hardship and drug crime, and they would also moderate the victimization-drug crime relationship among the African American women in the sample. Unfortunately, neither hypothesis was supported by the analyses. The results of the analyses, however, are not surprising given Agnew’s (2013) recent response to the mixed findings of the effects of moderating factors on the strain-crime relationship. For example, mixed results have been produced by studies examining the effect of social support on criminal coping, meaning that some studies have shown these factors to moderate the strain-crime relationship while others have not (see Eitle and Turner 2003; Jang and Johnson 2005; Paternoster and Mazerolle 1994; Robbers 2004). Agnew (2013) explains such mixed findings by suggesting that researchers may be using inadequate constructs or excluding other factors and strategies individuals may use to cope with strain.
Arguably, the most likely explanation is that there may not be an interaction effect between strain and any of moderating factors on crime and, instead, the moderating factors may have strong effects on crime that are independent of any interaction effects with types of strain. Some support for this explanation is found in the regression models. Women with high spiritual well-being and high active coping skills (see Tables 5.7.1 and
5.7.2) were significantly less likely to commit a drug-related crime, independent of any interaction effect. A few studies in the GST literature have found religiosity and spirituality to have inverse relationships with crime among African Americans; that is, the higher their religiosity and spirituality, the less likely people are to commit crime (Jang and Johnson 2003; 2005). As discussed in Chapter 3, religion may be involved in a person’s life independent of the stress they face (Agnew 2013). So the women in the sample may have been less likely to engage in drug crime due to their religious and spiritual beliefs and practices, but they did not necessarily use their religiosity or spirituality to cope with the strain they experienced in their lives as measured in this study. Studies have also found that coping skills seem to affect crime independently from strain (Mazerolle and Maahs 2000; Mazerolle et al. 2000; Mazerolle et al. 2003). Similar to their spiritual well-being, the women in the sample may not have relied on their active coping skills to handle the stress in their lives as it related to their involvement in drug crime.
For RQ7, it was hypothesized that all three of the factors would moderate the relationship between economic hardship and non-drug crime, and they would also moderate the relationship between gendered racism and non-drug crime among the African American women in the sample. It was assumed that none of the factors would moderate the victimization-non-drug crime relationship, because it was not expected that victimization would have a positive effect on committing a crime unrelated to drugs. Analyses showed that moderation was only found in the model examining gendered racism, social support, and non-drug crime. As discussed in Chapter 5, once gendered racism experiences reached a tipping point on the scale, social support seems to have lost
its protective factor among the women in the sample. One possible explanation is that members of the women’s social support systems eventually encourage criminal or deviant behavior once gendered racism experiences reach that tipping point. That is, they perceive great injustice and encourage the women to stand up for themselves to the point where they take justice into their own hands. Agnew (2006; 2013) argues that criminal coping is most likely when people are surrounded by others who foster the social learning of crime through modeling, reinforcing, and/or teaching beliefs and behaviors favorable to crime. The current study demonstrates that gendered racism may be a type of strain that creates some pressure or incentive for criminal coping. This is a significant finding and will make a substantial contribution to the GST literature and within the broader criminological literature on race, gender, and crime.
Like with the models pertaining to RQ6, the fact that moderation effects were not found between any of the factors on the relationship between economic hardship and non-drug crime may be indicative of the factors having strong effects on the dependent variable independent of any interaction effect. For example, in Model A of Table 5.8.1, women with perceived high social support were less likely to engage in non-drug related crime. And as expected, moderation was not found between any of the factors and victimization, though victimization was statistically significant in all three of the models (see Table 5.8.2). One possible explanation is that the effects of victimization on non- drug crime outweighed the effects of the conditioning factors on the relationship. Nevertheless, future research should continue to explore these relationships.