Using a sample of homeless street youth, this research examines how specific forms of strain–emotional abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, homelessness and being a victim of robbery, violence or theft, relative deprivation, monetary dissatisfaction and unemployment–lead to crime and drug use. It also explores how strain is conditioned by deviant peers, deviant attitudes, external attributions, self‐esteem and self‐efficacy. The results reveal that all ten types of strain examined can lead to criminal behavior either as main effects or when interacting with conditioning variables. The results are discussed in light of general strain theory and suggestions are offered for future research on this topic.

Using a sample of 400 homeless street youth, this article examines the role that self-control plays in the generation of crime and drug use as well as its link to negative social consequences. It also explores if these social consequences are themselves related to crime as predicted in strain and differential association theory, or if their impact is eliminated by the presence of low self-control. The results reveal that low self-control predicts a range of criminal behaviors as well as drug use. Consistent with the general theory, low self-control influences the association with deviant peers, the adoption of deviant values, length of unemployment, and length of homelessness. However, the results reveal that a number of social consequences; including deviant peers, deviant values, length of homelessness, relative deprivation, and monetary dis-satisfaction; have an effect on criminal behavior and drug use controlling for self-control lending support to other theoretical perspectives. Results are discussed in terms of developing the general theory by incorporating other perspectives.

Research using the routine activities perspective has relied on official crime statistics, victimization surveys, and demographic variables for data. Findings from this work indicates that the degree of exposure that individuals experience following certain lifestyle patterns increases property and personal crime victimization. A qualitative study of a delinquent street group reveals that the routine activities approach is insufficient in explaining how interactions escalate to violence. Instead it points to the need to expand the routine activities approach to include a choice component and integrate it with a subcultural approach. Subcultural norms influence actors' routine activities that, in turn, influence exposure to victimization and shape the behavioral choices available to members in response to victimization. Subcultures, routines, and choices also influence offending patterns. Subcultural values affect the choice of victims, and third parties appear to influence the “rules of the game,” and the amount of violence that takes place. Third parties offer subcultural support for violence, serving as allies, and helping to instigate conflict at the same time as serving as capable guardians to reduce victimization.

This research examines the role familial, school, labor market, and street factors play in the criminality of 200 homeless male street youths. Of particular interest is the way these youths interpret their labor market experiences and how together these experiences and interpretations influence criminal behavior. Findings reveal that familial and school factors have minimal influence on current criminal behavior. Instead, criminal behavior is influenced by such immediate factors as homelessness, drug and alcohol use, and criminal peers who engage in illegal activities. Further, criminal behavior is influenced by a lack of income, job experiences, and perceptions of a blocked opportunity structure. While labor market conditions and reactions to those conditions have some effect on crime, the findings also suggest that lengthy unemployment, job experiences, and a lack of income work in tandem with anger and external attributions to increase street youths' criminal activities.Advanced capitalist societies are undergoing structural transformations in their economies and labor markets that produce growth in nonstandard employment (including part-time, part-year, and temporary work) and an increasingly segmented labor market with many poor-paying jobs in a lower tier service sector (Hartnagel