RECONSIDERING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SES AND DELINQUENCY: CAUSATION BUT NOT CORRELATION*

Many theories of crime have linked low levels of socioeconomic status (SES) to high levels of delinquency. However, empirical studies have consistently found weak or nonexistent correlations between individuals' SES and their self-reported delinquent behavior. Drawing upon recent theoretical innovations (Hagan et al., 1985; Jensen, 1993; Tittle, 1995), we propose that this apparent contradiction between theory and data may be reconciled by recognizing that SES has both a negative and a positive indirect effect upon delinquency that, in tandem, results in little overall correlation between the two. We tested this proposal with longitudinal data from the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study. We used measures of parental SES recorded at study members' birth through age 15, social-psychological characteristics at age 18, and self-reported delinquency at ages 18 and 21. We found that low SES promoted delinquency by increasing individuals' alienation, financial strain, and aggression and by decreasing educational and occupational aspirations, whereas high SES promoted individuals' delinquency by increasing risk taking and social power and by decreasing conventional values. These findings suggest a reconciliation between theory and data, and they underscore the conceptual importance of elucidating the full range of causal linkages between SES and delinquency.     

PARENTING,SELF‐CONTROL,AND DELINQUENCY: A TEST OF SELF‐CONTROL THEORY*

Self‐control theory has received extensive empirical attention in the past decade, but most studies have not tested its arguments about the effects of parenting on self‐control and delinquency. Using data collected from a sample of urban high school students, this study addresses this void by examining two parenting‐related hypotheses derived from the theory. For one of the hypotheses, the results with self‐control theory are contrasted with those obtained with Baumrind's theory of authoritative parenting, a theory that also is concerned with the link between parenting and self‐control. Results generally support self‐control theory's two hypotheses, but also point to empirical limitations of the theory.     

Examining the Relationship Between Parenting,Risk-Taking,and Delinquency in Japan: Context and Empirical Applicability

In criminology, the relationship between risk-taking and delinquency is well established. Although research on the relationship between risk-taking and delinquency is extensive, it is primarily limited to Western contexts. Particularly for Japan, little is known about the relationship between risk-taking and delinquency, as existing empirical studies in English are scarce. The present study examines the relationship between risk-taking and delinquency in the Japanese context. In briefly reviewing the literature on risk-taking in Japan, parenting was an important influence on levels of youths' risk-taking and delinquency. The findings primarily support the mediating role of high risk-taking between parenting and delinquency. Although high risk-taking explained why low maternal attachment and monitoring was related to delinquency, it was unable to explain the relationship completely.     

Longitudinal and cross-sectional data collection and analysis in the study of crime and delinquency

In response to recent debates about the utility of longitudinal as opposed to cross-sectional designs in the study of crime and delinquency, we examine empirical evidence on the extent to which longitudinal and cross-sectional data may be used interchangeably without altering substantive conclusions. We distinguish between longitudinal or cross-sectional methods of data collection and longitudinal or cross-sectional data, and acknowledge that longitudinal data may be collected by using a cross-sectional method. We examine the extent to which longitudinal data collected cross-sectionally are compatible with longitudinal data collected in a prospective longitudinal design. We then compare correlations and predictive models that use cross-sectional and longitudinal data to study the same substantive problem. We conclude with an examination of the issue of temporal order as a test of competing hypotheses. We find that longitudinal data collected in a cross-sectional design do not consistently produce the same results as longitudinal data collected in a prospective longitudinal design, and that longitudinal and cross-sectional data do not consistently yield the same substantive results in correlation and prediction models. Longitudinal data allow us to generate strong tests of competing hypotheses which would be impossible without longitudinal data. We conclude that cross-sectional data, or longitudinal data collected in cross-sectional designs, are inadequate substitutes for prospectively collected longitudinal data in the study of crime and delinquency.     

PARENTAL MANAGEMENT: MEDIATOR OF THE EFFECT OF SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS ON EARLY DELINQUENCY *

This study used structural equation modeling with longitudinal data from the Oregon Youth Study to test the hypothesis that the effect of socioeconomic status (SES) on delinquency in early adolescence would be mediated entirely by parental management skills. SES was measured by parental education and occupation when the son was in the fourth grade, parental management skills during the sixth grade, and delinquency during the seventh grade. The hypothesis was supported: The direct effect of SES on delinquency was not significant after controlling for parental management, which was modeled as a second-order factor consisting of parental monitoring and discipline. Implications are discussed for theories of delinquency and for delinquency prevention and treatment.     

Neighborhood Advantage,Relative Status,and Violence Among Foreign-Born Adolescents

Immigrant families and contexts are protective for delinquency, even though recent immigrants are more likely to be poor and reside in disadvantaged settings. Yet it is unclear whether the protective effects of immigrant status depend on the match between family SES and neighborhood advantage. This study examines the interplay among immigrant status, family SES, and neighborhood advantage in predicting adolescent violence. Using multilevel longitudinal data from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (N = 1,908), findings show that first-generation adolescents from low-SES families have the highest odds of violence in the most advantaged contexts, exceeding that of even third-generation adolescents. In contrast, high-SES first-generation adolescents have the highest probability of violence in less advantaged contexts, but the lowest in the most advantaged neighborhoods. The results identify conditions under which the protective nature of immigrant status is eroded, and highlight the importance of relative status for understanding violence among foreign-born adolescents.     

Parents and Drugs

This article examines three hypotheses about the relationship between attachment to parents and children's drug use when parents are perceived by their children as having used drugs. Hirschi's hypothesis that attachment to parents inhibits delinquency regardless of parental behavior is rejected in favor of hypotheses that predict variation in that relationship. In contrast to attachment to straight parents, attachment to drug-using parents does not inhibit drug use significantly and there are occasional hints at reversals in the relationships.     

DIRECT PARENTAL CONTROLS AND DELINQUENCY*

Until recently, “direct controls” by parents have been summarily dismissed by delinquency researchers as theoretically and empirically unimportant. Although prior research indicates that various measures of direct parental controls (e.g., the amount of time spent interacting with parents) are related to delinquency, the correlations are uniformly weak and often not significant. However, when the term “direct control” is reconceptualized to include specific components—normative regulation, monitoring, and punishment—the results indicate that direct controls by parents have as great an impact on delinquency as that of “direct controls” or parental “attachments.” Further, the results suggest that the form of the relation between direct controls and delinquency is not simple, direct, and linear. Depending on which specific component of direct control is examined, its relationship to delinquency may be either linear or nonlinear, positive or inverse.     

The First Delinquent Peers Are the Most Important: Examining Nonlinearity in the Peer Effect

Criminologists have long recognized the importance of peers in the etiology of delinquency. Yet, the bulk of empirical studies on this topic make the implicit assumption that the peer effect to be conditioned is linear. With few notable exceptions, prior criminological research has not thought deeply about possible nonlinearity in the peer effect. To address this issue, the present study examines whether the functional form of the relationship between peer and respondent smoking, getting drunk, and fighting is nonlinear, and whether this nonlinearity is moderated by lagged respondent delinquency. Logistic regression models on adolescents from The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health indicate that the marginal effect of peer delinquency on respondent delinquency decreases as the count of delinquent friends increases, consistent with a satiation effect. Moreover, the models indicate that the nonlinear effect of peer delinquency on respondent delinquency is moderated by prior respondent delinquency.     

Self-Reported Delinquency in India: A Study of High School and Approved School Boys in Tamil Nadu

Findings from a self-reported delinquency survey among high school (N = 517) and institutionalized (N = 306) boys in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu are reported as part of a larger study designed to tap several aspects of delinquency phenomena in a developing society. The present research suggests that self-reported delinquency in India resembles that of juveniles in economically developed nations in several respects but differs from it in other ways. Specifically, as found elsewhere, self-reported delinquency in Tamil Nadu largely consists of minor property offenses or status-technical violations. Also, institutionalized boys (official delinquents) more frequently report delinquency involvement compared to high school boys. However, while a general inverse relationship was found between the SES rank of boys in various high schools and institutions and their reported delinquency involvement, it appears that this is not necessarily a direct linear relationship. In contrast to the findings of self-report research in developed nations, both the volume and frequency of self-admitted involvement in delinquency is comparatively low for Tamil Nadu boys, reflecting the comparatively low offense and arrest rates for juveniles reported in official crime data in India. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

AGE-VARYING EFFECTS OF FAMILY,SCHOOL, AND PEERS ON DELINQUENCY: A MULTILEVEL MODELING TEST OF INTERACTIONAL THEORY*

Few criminologists have directly examined whether the importance of family, school, and peers in the etiology of delinquency changes over the developmental period of adolescence. This study tests hypotheses, derived from Thornberry's (1987) interactional theory, about the age-varying effects of attachment to parents, commitment to school, and association with delinquent peers on delinquency by applying Bryk and Raudenbush's (1992) hierarchical linear models to analyze the first five waves of data from the National Youth Survey. Results show that the direct as well as total effects of delinquent peers and school on delinquency tend to increase from early to middle adolescence, reach a peak at the age of mid-13 and mid-15, respectively, and then decline. This curvilinear pattern of change is interpreted as reflective of the process of adolescent development and the age-delinquency relationship. On the other hand, both direct and total effects of family on delinquency are found to be significant throughout the period of adolescence, but the effects do not systematically vary as hypothesized. Theoretical, methodological, and policy implications of the findings are also discussed.     

RELIGION AND CRIME REEXAMINED: THE IMPACT OF RELIGION,SECULAR CONTROLS,AND SOCIAL ECOLOGY ON ADULT CRIMINALITY*

Since Hirschi and Stark's (1969) surprising failure to find religious (“hellfire”) effects on delinquency, subsequent research has generally revealed an inverse relationship between religiosity and various forms of deviance, delinquency, and crime. The complexity of the relationship and conditions under which it holds, however, continue to be debated. Although a few researchers have found that religion's influence is noncontingent, most have found support—especially among youths—for effects that vary by denomination, type of offense, and social and/or religious context. More recently the relationship has been reported as spurious when relevant secular controls are included. Our research attempts to resolve these issues by testing the religion-crime relationship in models with a comprehensive crime measure and three separate dimensions of religiosity. We also control for secular constraints, religious networks, and social ecology. We found that, among our religiosity measures, participation in religious activities was a persistent and noncontingent inhibiter of adult crime.     

Delinquent Behaviour,Psychosomatic Symptoms and the Idea of 'Healthy Delinquency'

This study examines the association between self-reported delinquent behaviour and psychosomatic symptoms in a nationally representative sample of 15-16-year old Finnish adolescents. Some theorists have suggested that psychosomatic symptoms are related to inability to break culturally given norms. If this is so, delinquents should have less symptoms than non-delinquents. To assess this idea, two hypotheses are formulated: delinquency is associated with decreased symptoms (the 'hydraulic' hypothesis), or delinquency is associated with increased symptoms (the 'stress' hypothesis). In support of the second hypothesis, the results indicate that delinquency and psychosomatic symptoms are positively associated. The effect of delinquency on symptoms is robust in the presence of a number of control variables. The findings are discussed i.a. from the point of view of increasing research interest in the positive effects of delinquency. While positive effects are likely to exist in specific contexts, delinquency as such does not lead to a reduction of psychosomatic symptoms.     

BROKEN HOMES AND MIDDLE-CLASS DELINQUENCY:

This research note presents the results of an empirical study that examines the relationship between broken homes and middle-class delinquents known to the juvenile justice system and compares the findings with a recent study that focused on the relationship between broken juveniles homes and self-reported delinquency. A comparison of the two studies reveals that both studies found little or no relationship between broken homes and middle-class delinquency.     

Strain and Opportunity Structures

Traditional strain theory received substantial empirical attention for a prolonged period of time, but it currently occupies a marginal position in criminology. Efforts to revitalize and elaborate it have occurred under the rubric of Agnew's general strain theory. These theories share a focus on how contextual factors, in particular what are commonly referred to as opportunity structures, affect the relationship between stresses and strains and delinquency. Using national-level data, this study considers empirically the impact of several illegitimate opportunity structures conceptualized at the school-level on the association between strain, stressful life events, delinquency, and self-concept. The results indicate that both stress and strain affect changes in delinquency and self-concept over time. Yet there is little evidence that these relationships are conditioned by access to illegitimate opportunity. These results suggest that strain and stress affect delinquency uniformly across a variety of illegitimate opportunity structures.     

SOCIAL CLASS AND DELINQUENT BEHAVIOR

The apparent refutation by self-report studies of social class-related theories of juvenile delinquency is critically reviewed. Improper conceptualization and operationalization of “social class” are considered to be primary causes of inconsistent findings. A more appropriate “underclasslearning class” model of stratification is suggested. Although no empirical support is found for a relationship between self-reported delinquent behavior and socioeconomic status of father's occupation. indications are that social class is somewhat more related to self-reported delinquency using the underclass/earning class model. However, there is no reason to expect social class to emerge as a major correlate of delinquent behavior no matter how it is measured.     

Religiosity and Delinquency

This article explores the contradictory findings that have characterized the relationship between religion and delinquency. The data are based on interviews with 600 adolescents attending public school in the Atlanta, Georgia area. A wide variety of religious and delinquency measures were used, allowing a complete examination of the relationship. The existence of a weak to moderate negative zero-order relationship was verified. Religious salience, belief in the power of personal prayer, and orthodoxy were found to be related more strongly to delinquency than the most often-used variable, church attendance. Most important, in spite of the relatively strong zero-order relationship between a number of religiosity and delinquency measures, within a multivariate context religion's contribution as an independent variable was not statistically significant. Possible explanations for this finding are discussed.     

The contextual nature of the family structure/delinquency relationship

It is well established that growing up in a nontraditional family represents a risk factor for delinquent behavior; however, the understanding of whether this effect is universal remains imperfect. The present study examined whether the link between nontraditional family structure and delinquency varies according to six distinct circumstances: gender, race, age, SES, family size, and place of residence. Regression analysis of a nationally representative sample of adolescents between the ages of twelve and seventeen (n = 3,499) suggests that gender, race, SES, and place of residence do not condition the family structure/delinquency relationship. Significant interactions, however, were discovered with respect to age and family size. Generally, living in a nontraditional family is more criminogenic for older adolescents, and for those from larger families. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.     

Examining the Neighborhood Context of the Violent Offending-Victimization Relationship: A Prospective Investigation

The persistent link between offending and victimization is one of the most robust empirical findings in criminological research. Despite important efforts to isolate the sources of this phenomenon, it is not fully understood. Much attention has been paid to the role of individual-level factors; however, few studies have systematically integrated neighborhood conditions. Using prospective data from the Pittsburgh Youth Study the current research examines a set of hypotheses regarding the interplay of neighborhood structural conditions and the victim-offender overlap. A multilevel analytical technique is applied to the data which purges time-varying covariates of all time-stable unobserved heterogeneity. Results indicate that the relationship between offending and victimization is pronounced in disadvantaged neighborhoods, while offending is not significantly related to victimization risk in contexts marked by lower levels of disadvantage. The implications of the results for theory are discussed, along with recommendations for future research.     

STRESSFUL LIFE EVENTS AND DELINQUENCY ESCALATION IN EARLY ADOLESCENCE*

A recent emphasis in criminology has been on trajectories, life transitions, and turning points that affect the escalation, stabilization, or desistance of deviant behavior. The purpose of this article is to describe and examine one potential pathway of delinquency escalation in early and mid-adolescence. It draws upon Agnew's general strain theory and research on adolescent stress to describe a significant transitory stage of the life course. A key organizing principle underlying the proposed pathway is that although stressful life events are highly variable among adolescents, experiencing a persistent or increasing number over time can lead to an escalation of delinquency. Using four years of sequential data from the Family Health Study (651 adolescents aged 11–14 during year one), we estimate a hierarchical growth-curve model that emphasizes the effects of life events on delinquency. The model assumes that delinquency is distributed as an overdispersed Poisson random variable. The results indicate that experiencing a relatively high number of life events over time is related to a significant “growth” of delinquency but that this relationship is not affected by sex, family income, self-esteem, or mastery.