Hindawi Publishing Corporation Journal of Criminology Volume 2013, Article ID 240637, 14 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/240637 Research Article Victimization, Urbanicity, and the Relevance of Context: School Routines, Race and Ethnicity, and Adolescent Violence Anthony A. Peguero, 1 Edwardo L. Portillos, 2 Jun S. Hong, 3 Juan Carlos González, 4 Lindsay L. Kahle, 1 and Zahra Shekarkhar 5 1 Department of Sociology, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA 2 Department of Sociology, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, Colorado Springs, CO 80918, USA 3 School of Social Work, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48202, USA 4 Department of Educational Research and Administration, California State University, Fresno, Fresno, CA 93740, USA 5 Department of Sociology and Criminology & Law, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA Correspondence should be addressed to Anthony A. Peguero; anthony.peguero@vt.edu Received 28 February 2013; Revised 31 May 2013; Accepted 8 June 2013 Academic Editor: Byongook Moon Copyright © 2013 Anthony A. Peguero et al. is is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. e United States is undergoing a historical racial and ethnic demographic shiſt. ere is limited criminological research exploring if and how these changes influence variation in the relationship between routine activity theory and adolescent violence. Although the link between routine activities and victimization has been tested and well established, criminologists have questioned if routine activities can explain adolescent violence across different social contexts. Prior research demonstrates that there are potential nuances in the theoretical connections between routine activities and victimization, particularly when considering race and ethnicity. is study builds on previous research by questioning if the elements of routine activities predict victimization across predominately urban, rural, and suburban schools. e implications of the relevance of school context in the relationships between routine activities and adolescent victimization will also be discussed more generally. 1. Introduction Routine activity theory is oſten utilized to investigate the insulating and risk factors linked to adolescent victimization. In essence, routine activities consider the characteristics of both offenders and victims and/or the characteristics of the space in which offenders and victims are likely to interact and consequently linked to the likelihood of criminal and delinquent activities [1–3]. Adolescents in the USA experience increased risk of criminal victimization, which typically occurs in schools where adolescents spend a significant portion of their lives [4, 5]. Understanding the factors linked to school victimization is imperative because schools are institutions where adolescent socialization takes place. Criminological research has repeatedly demonstrated that routine activity theory is an appropriate and effective theoretical framework that can explicate the occurrence of adolescent victimization at school [6, 7]. Recent findings, however, suggest distinctive nuances associated with race and ethnicity in the relationship between routine activities and school victimization [8]. Routine activities theorists have argued that sociodemo- graphic differences (e.g., race, ethnicity, gender, and socioe- conomic status) in victimization may be associated with dis- tinct role expectations and structural constraints occurring in the USA [2, 9]. In other words, social and cultural norms might be associated with individuals’ behaviors and daily routines that may lead an individual toward increased or decreased exposure to crime, violence, and victimization. Cohen and colleagues [2] stressed the importance of applying lifestyle and routine activities theories in violence research. ey argued that “socio-demographic characteristics are important, because the resulting lifestyle similarity is likely to bring potential offenders and potential victims into direct contact more oſten than when such characteristics are not shared” ([2], page 509).