Black Middle Class Delinquents

School of Criminal Justice at Rutgers University in Newark Receive National Honors

Dr. Constance Hassett-Walker culminated her doctoral studies at SCJ with a Social Issues Dissertation Award from the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues for her research on delinquency among African-American youths. Shifting her focus from African Americans residing in poor neighborhoods to middle-class blacks living in affluent communities, Hassett-Walker’s research revealed that despite improving socioeconomic status, young middle-class African Americans are nearly as much at risk to engage in criminal activity as economically-disadvantaged blacks of comparable ages. Based on her findings, which she published in the book Black Middle Class Delinquents (LFB Scholarly Publishing, 2009), Hassett-Walker ultimately concluded that the degree of association with delinquent peers is a better predictor of criminal behavior among middle-class black teenagers and young adults than parenting variables.

Hassett-Walker, a resident of North Plainfield, New Jersey, earned her bachelor’s degree in French from Rutgers College, master’s degree in public administration from New York University, and master’s and doctoral degrees in criminal justice from SCJ.

She is interested in issues related to race, class, crime and violence, and her research has been published in Justice Research and Policy, the Journal of Criminal Justice, the Journal of School Violence, and the Journal of Interpersonal Violence. Hassett-Walker is an assistant professor of criminal justice at Kean University in Union, New Jersey, where she recently received the university’s President’s Research Initiative Award.

Media Contact: Helen Paxton 973-353-5262 E-mail: paxton@andromeda.rutgers.edu Contact: Ferlanda Fox Nixon 973-353-5262 E-mail: ferlanda@andromeda.rutgers.edu