SELF-CONCEPT, DELINQUENCY, AND POSITIVE PEER CULTURE

This is an empirical attempt to assess juvenile delinquency and correction. in an institutional setting, in terms of agency and communion (two aspects of self) as defined by Bakan (1966). The Jusness Inventory, a standard inventory for assessing social adaptability and conformity, used with a multi scaled index was employed on juvenile delinquents in a positive peer culture program items of the Jesness Inventory judged to be a genetic and communal are listed.     

FAMILY AND DELINQUENCY: STRUCTURE OR FUNCTION?*

Although much debate and research have been centered on the relative importance of familial structure (for example, presence of parents) and functions (for example, relationship with parents) for delinquency, the discipline has failed to come to terms, both theoretically and empirically, with the inherent complexity of the issues. Recognizing that structure necessitates some functional consequences, the complexity of the issues is explored. Utilizing a city-wide representative sample of black youths and a somewhat systematic sample of white youths, an Automatic Interaction Detection (AID) analysis is used to uncover unsuspected interaction patterns of six independent variables. Interaction with the father emerged as the single most important variable for blacks. However, AID did uncover for blacks important interactions with family size, presence of father, and social class. A somewhat different and more tenuous pattern was found for whites, with social class being the most important variable and father–son interaction showing very little relationship with delinquency. It seems evident, therefore, that structure and function, especially for blacks, are both of importance for delinquency.     

FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS,JUVENILE DELINQUENCY,AND ADULT CRIMINALITY*

Home observations during childhood and criminal records 30 years later are used to address questions of relative impact among features of child rearing influencing male criminal outcomes. The results suggest two mechanisms: Maternal behavior appears to influence juvenile delinquency and, through those effects, adult criminality. Paternal interaction with the family, however, appears to have a more direct influence on the probability of adult criminal behavior.     

FAMILY STRUCTURE AND DELINQUENCY: GENERAL PATTERNS AND GENDER DIFFERENCES

In a sample of over 700 high-school sophomores, a jive-category measure of family structure is found to be not related to either frequency or seriousness of self-reported illegal behavior, except for unusually high delinquent behavior by boys from mother/stepfather homes. On the other hand, family structure does show an overall association with self-reported trouble with police, school, and juvenile court officials. Specifically, while boys (not girls) with stepfathers admit the most delinquent acts, controlling for the amount of admitted delinquency shows that officials are more likely to respond to the misbehavior of children (especially girls) from mother-only families. None of these findings are accounted for by race, social class, the quality of parent-child relationships, or the quality of school experiences.     

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.     

THE IMPACT OF FAMILY STRUCTURE AND QUALITY ON DELINQUENCY: A COMPARATIVE ASSESSMENT OF STRUCTURAL AND FUNCTIONAL FACTORS*

Despite the plethora of studies of broken homes, multivariate studies comparing the effects of the broken home and other theoretically relevant measures of the quality of family life are rare. This study examines the family structure versus family function issue by testing the comparative effects on self-reported delinquency of family structure and jive measures of family function. Five types of delinquency are considered. The data were obtained from a 1980 survey of 152 high school students in a small midwestern town. Item analysis and data reduction techniques were employed to construct six family quality indices and jive delinquency indices. Two types of family structure were examined: presence of both biological parents in the home v. other and single- v. two-parent homes. Multivariate analyses controlled for the effects of age and gender. Bivariate tests of the relationships between broken homes and delinquency were not significant, except for a moderate relationship between broken homes and status offenses. In addition, a bivariate relation between single-parent homes and delinquency was observed for status offenses only. Other forms of family dysfunction all were significantly related to overall delinquency and to status offenses. Moreover, several measures of family quality evidenced significant bivariate relationships to property offenses. violent offenses, and drug offenses. The importance of the broken home was further diminished when the direct effects of broken homes and home quality were examined in multivariate tests. Regression equations showed home quality and gender, rather than family structure, to be the more important determinants of delinquency. The family structure coefficient was significant in only 1 of 10 tests, a regression of broken home and home quality on status offenses. Efforts to expand the analysis to identify specific areas of family dysfunction were unenlightening.     

GENDER,FRIENDSHIP NETWORKS,AND DELINQUENCY: A DYNAMIC NETWORK APPROACH

Researchers have examined selection and influence processes in shaping delinquency similarity among friends, but little is known about the role of gender in moderating these relationships. Our objective is to examine differences between adolescent boys and girls regarding delinquency‐based selection and influence processes. Using longitudinal network data from adolescents attending two large schools in AddHealth (N = 1,857) and stochastic actor‐oriented models, we evaluate whether girls are influenced to a greater degree by friends’ violence or delinquency than boys (influence hypothesis) and whether girls are more likely to select friends based on violent or delinquent behavior than boys (selection hypothesis). The results indicate that girls are more likely than boys to be influenced by their friends’ involvement in violence. Although a similar pattern emerges for nonviolent delinquency, the gender differences are not significant. Some evidence shows that boys are influenced toward increasing their violence or delinquency when exposed to more delinquent or violent friends but are immune to reducing their violence or delinquency when associating with less violent or delinquent friends. In terms of selection dynamics, although both boys and girls have a tendency to select friends based on friends’ behavior, girls have a stronger tendency to do so, suggesting that among girls, friends’ involvement in violence or delinquency is an especially decisive factor for determining friendship ties.     

SELF-REPORTED DELINQUENCY AND A COMBINED DELINQUENCY SERIOUSNESS SCALE BASED ON BOYS,MOTHERS, AND TEACHERS: CONCURRENT AND PREDICTIVE VALIDITY FOR AFRICAN-AMERICANS AND CAUCASIANS*

The Pittsburgh Youth Study is a prospective longitudinal survey of three samples of Pittsburgh boys (each containing about 500 boys) initially studied in first, fourth, and seventh grades. The first two data collection waves yielded self-reported delinquency and combined delinquency seriousness scores (the combined scores based on information from boy, mother, and teacher) for the middle sample (up to an average age of 10.7 years) and oldest sample (up to an average age of 13.9 years). These scores were compared with records of petitions to the Allegheny County Juvenile Court for delinquency offenses before and up to six years after the assessments. The area under the ROC curve was used as a measure of validity. Concurrent validity was higher than predictive validity. The combined scale had similar concurrent validity but greater predictive validity than the self-report scale, and the combined scale also identified a greater number of boys as serious delinquents. Concurrent validity for admitting offenses was higher for Caucasians, but concurrent validity for admitting arrests was higher for African-Americans. There were no consistent ethnic differences in predictive validity. There was an increase in predictive validity, for both African-Americans and Caucasians, by combining self-report data with information from other sources. Afrer controlling for delinquency measures, African-Americans were more likely than Caucasians to be petitioned in the future, but not in the past. In this research, ethnic differences in official delinquency were partly attributable to ethnic differences in delinquent behavior and were not attributable to differential ethnic attrition or differential ethnic validity of measures of delinquent behavior.     

DIFFERENTIAL RATES OF RURAL-URBAN DELINQUENCY: A Social Control Approach

Official statistics and numerous sociological studies indicate that rural areas generate lower rates of delinquency than do urban areas. This study attempts to explain these differential rates by drawing on the social control theory of Hirschi. Questionnaires were administered to a rural and an urban juvenile detention center population to investigate both extent of delin-quency involvement and degree of commitment to five institutional orders: family, church, school, peers, and formal authority. As hypothesized, the rural sample reported significantly less delinquent activity than the urban sample. Control theory also received support from the data. A strong inverse relationship was found between commitment and delinquency. When intro-duced as a control variable, commitment specified the original relationship between locality and delinquency. The specified relationships were strongest for rural youth with high commitment and for urban youth with low commitment.     

SOCIAL CONTROL THEORY AND DELINQUENCY: A LONGITUDINAL TEST

Hirschi's (1969) control theory has received much empirical support and, as a consequence, has become one of the dominant theories of delinquency. Virtually all tests of the theory, however, have been conducted with cross-sectional data. This is a serious problem since there is good reason to believe that delinquency may have a causal impact on social control. This paper describes a longitudinal test of Hirschi's theory using panel data from a national sample of adolescent boys. Data indicate that the social control variables explain only 1%-2% of the variance in future delinquency, suggesting that cross-sectional studies have exaggerated the importance of Hirschi's theory. Possible reasons for the small longitudinal effect of the control variables are discussed.     

YOUTH EMPLOYMENT AND DELINQUENCY: RECONSIDERING A PROBLEMATIC RELATIONSHIP*

Employment is often thought to discourage participation in crime, but self-report data from juveniles consistently disclose a positive correlation between employment and delinquency. This analysis tests three possible explanations for that correlation. The first is that differences in levels of delinquency between workers and nonworkers exist prior to employment. The second holds that working increases independence from parents, thereby reducing the controlling effect of parental influence. The third explanation, drawing on Sutherland's theory of differential association, is that employment increases delinquent behavior by exposing adolescents to a wider network of peers, including delinquent peers. Analysis of data from waves 1, 2, and 3 of the National Youth Survey reveals a positive association between employment and some forms of delinquency, especially alcohol and drug use. Selection bias explains much, but not all, of the association. Although no support is found for the parental influence explanation, the remaining employment effect is explained by exposure to delinquent peers.     

STRAIN, PERSONALITY TRAITS, AND DELINQUENCY: EXTENDING GENERAL STRAIN THEORY

Although Agnew's (1992) general strain theory (GST) has secured a fair degree of support since its introduction, researchers have had trouble explaining why some individuals are more likely than others to react to strain with delinquency. This study uses data from the National Survey of Children to address this issue. Drawing on Agnew (1997) and the psychological research on personality traits, it is predicted that juveniles high in negative emotionality and low in constraint will be more likely to react to strain with delinquency. Data support this prediction.     

GANGS,DRUGS, AND DELINQUENCY IN A SURVEY OF URBAN YOUTH*

Youth delinquent gangs have been given considerable academic and media attention during the past decade. Much of the attention has focused on the violence and drug dealing in which gang members are assumed to be involved. Recent knowledge about gangs has relied primarily on data obtained from police gang units and from observational or case studies. Very little information has been derived from surveys or interviews with a more general sample of youths. In this paper, data from the Denver Youth Survey, a longitudinal study of families, are used to examine: (1) the prevalence and demographic composition of gangs: (2) the degree to which gang members are involved in illegal activities: and (3) the temporal relationship between criminal offending and gang membership.     

SEX AND DELINQUENCY: A Partial Test of the Masculinity Hypothesis

With increasing frequency, commentators assert that attitudes associated with occupying the male status or “masculinity” contribute to criminal/delinquent involvement. Despite the ubiquity with which this “masculinity hypothesis” appears, it has received few empirical assessments, and those that do exist typically are flawed by what amounts to the ecological fallacy. Using individual level data, this research attempted to test the masculinity proposition. In general, our data lent some support to the hypothesis, indicating that independent of gender, having masculine attributes positively affected the commission of different types of delinquent offenses.     

UNRAVELING FAMILIES AND DELINQUENCY: A REANALYSIS OF THE GLUECKS' DATA*

One of the most influential studies in the history of criminological research is Sheldon and Eleanor Gluecks' Unraveling Juvenile Delinquency (UJD) (1950). The research design of the UJD study was strong, but the conceptual and statistical analyses performed by the Gluecks were ofen lacking in both methodological and theoretical rigor. As a result, the Gluecks' study has been criticized from both a methodological and ideological perspective. This research reanalyzes the original Glueck data, with a specijic focus on variables relating to family characteristics of 500 oficially defined delinquents and 500 nondelinquents. Using multivariate analyses we find that mother's supervision, parental styles of discipline. and parental attachment are the most important predictors of serious and persistent delinquency. On the other hand, background factors (e.g., parental criminality and drunkenness, broken homes, crowding) have little or no direct effect on delinquency, but instead operate through the family process variables. By reanalyzing the original UJD data, this study contributes to the current literature on family lve and delinquency and provides an updated assessment of the Gluecks' contributions to criminologv.     

COMMUNITY STRUCTURE AND ADOLESCENT DELINQUENCY IN ICELAND: A CONTEXTUAL ANALYSIS*

The current study examines the contextual effects of community structural characteristics on adolescent delinquency in Iceland, focusing on how specific individual‐level mechanisms work to mediate the contextual effects. Using multilevel data on 68 school communities and 6,458 adolescents, we find a contextual effect of community social instability (residential mobility, family disruption) on delinquency. Moreover, the findings indicate that specific individual‐level social control mechanisms (Coleman, 1988) explain a part of this effect, namely, embeddedness in community‐based social ties linking parents and adolescents and normlessness. Also, the findings indicate that the individual‐level effect of unsupervised peer activity on delinquency is contingent on embeddedness in social ties as well as on community social instability. The findings have bearing on the cross‐societal generalizability of social disorganization theory.