ADOLESCENT ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIPS AND DELINQUENCY INVOLVEMENT

While much attention has centered on the role of peer influence for adolescent delinquency, that of romantic partners has been largely neglected. Recent analyses of romantic relationships during the adolescent period suggest their general importance to development; research highlights that adolescents themselves frequently describe these relations as relatively intimate and influential. Thus, while classic theoretical frameworks such as differential association theory have often centered on the role of peers, their general logic is consistent with the notion that such relationships may indeed "matter" as a source of influence on delinquent behavior. Data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health are well suited for examining the role of romantic partners because they allow for the identification and recreation of friendship networks and connections between romantic partners. Forging these interconnections, we link friends' and romantic partners' delinquency to respondents' own delinquency, enabling an examination of romantic partner influence on adolescent delinquency, beyond that influence associated with friends' behaviors. Drawing on theories of gender stratification, we also explore whether the effect of romantic partners' behavior is conditioned by gender. Findings reveal that romantic partners' delinquency exerts a unique effect on respondents' delinquency net of friends' delinquency and control variables. Additionally, romantic partners' deviance has a stronger effect on female involvement in minor deviance. We find no evidence, however, that gender conditions the strength of romantic partners' more serious delinquency on respondents' serious delinquency.     

Juvenile delinquency and victimization: a theoretical typology

It is a widely voiced notion that juvenile delinquency and victimization co-occur extensively in the youth population, in particular because delinquent youth engage in risky activities. But theory from the bullying and traumatic stress literatures suggests that there may be additional pathways by which delinquency and victimization are connected. This analysis looks for possible subtypes of delinquents and victims consistent with such pathways. Using the Developmental Victimization Survey, a national sample of 1,000 youth aged 10 to 17 were interviewed over the phone. Support emerges for three distinct types of delinquent-victims, who are termed bully-victims, delinquent sex/maltreatment- victims, and property delinquent-victims. There is also evidence for substantial groups of youth who are primarily delinquent but not seriously victimized, as well as youth who are primarily victimized but not delinquent.     

VIOLENT DELINQUENTS AND URBAN YOUTHS*

Violent juvenile crime is disproportionately concentrated in urban neighborhoods, and accordingly an understanding of the sources of serious delinquency is con founded by components of urbanism. These milieus usually have high rates of absolute poverty and relative economic deprivation, as well as weak social institutions. The persistent findings of delinquent peer contributions to delinquency have yet to be tested under conditions where social class and milieu effects are controlled. There is little empirical evidence to determine how adolescents in high-crime neighborhoods avoid delinquency despite frequent contact with delinquent peers. The differences between violent delinquents and other youths from comparable neighborhoods are little understood. This study contrasts a sample of chronically violent male juvenile offenders with the general male adolescent population (students and school dropouts) from inner-city neighborhoods in four cities. Violent delinquents differ from other male adolescents in inner cities in their attachments to school, their perceptions of school safety, their associations with officially delinquent peers, their perceptions of weak maternal authority, and the extent to which they have been victims of crime. Peer delinquency and drug“problems” predict the prevalence of three delinquency offense types for both violent offenders and neighborhood youths. Among violent delinquents, there appear to be different explanatory patterns, with one type better described by internal controls (locus of control), a developmental measure. Overall, there is strong support for integrated theory including control and learning components, and similar associations exist among inner-city youths as in the general adolescent male population. Despite the generally elevated rates of delinquency in inner cities, the explanations of serious and violent delinquency appear the same when subjects are sampled at the extremes of the distribution of behavior.     

JUVENILE INVOLVEMENT IN OCCUPATIONAL DELINQUENCY*

Although concern with white‐collar crime has grown considerably in recent years, little research has been undertaken on the workplace misconduct of juveniles. This omission is noteworthy because of the extensive involvement of youths in the labor market. Accordingly, based on a sample of high school seniors, we explored the determinants of youths' occupational delinquency. The analysis revealed that work‐related delinquency is affected both by underlying criminal propensities and by contact with delinquent coworkers on the job. It also appears that delinquent youths are selected into negative work environments in which they come into contact with fellow delinquents—an interaction effect that amplifies their occupational delinquency. Finally, the data suggest that associating with delinquent coworkers affects misbehavior not only within, but also outside the workplace. The theoretical implications of these findings are explored.     

When the study of delinquent groups stood still: In defense of a classical tradition

This essay focuses on reductionism, the study of delinquent groups, and citation analysis. It describes Frederick Thrasher’s epistemological break with reductionists like Sigmund Freud and William Healy. It shows how Freudian, neoFreudian, and social-control theorists attributed ‘the group factor’ in delinquency to pathological traits, early childhood disorders, frustrated desires for mobility, or social disabilities of group members. From 1950 to 1970, the mobilization of bias accompanying these regressive developments nullified a classical sociological view of delinquent groups by transforming a fruitful legacy of non-reductionist theory and research into ‘non events’. When criminologists employ citation indices to legitimate such degenerative developments, they rely on spurious subjective criteria for gauging scientific contributions to knowledge.     

THE INTERACTIVE EFFECTS OF PEER VARIABLES ON DELINQUENCY

Drawing on relevant theory and research, it is argued that the impact of delinquent peers on delinquency is conditioned by (1) attachment to peers, (2) time spent with peers, and (3) the extent to which peers present delinquent patterns (i.e., present definitions favorable to delinquency, model delinquent behavior, and differentially rein force delinquency). Regression analyses with data from the National Youth Survey provide partial support for these arguments. When the above variables are at their mean or lower levels, a measure of association with peers who engage in serious delinquency has no impact or a negative impact on delinquency. When the above variables are at higher levels, delinquent peers (serious) has a strong, positive impact on delinquency. A measure of association with peers who engage in minor delinquency, however, is not conditioned by the above variables.     

SCHOOL BONDING,RACE, AND DELINQUENCY*

While there is considerable evidence that blacks experience school in qualitatively distinct ways from whites, there has been a general failure to examine racial variation in the impact of school variables on juvenile misconduct. The purpose of this research is to describe the manner in which school bonding affects delinquent conduct, focusing in particular on the role of the school in the delinquent involvement of black youths. Our orientation is primarily a control theory one that suggests that the greater the degree of school bonding the lesser the likelihood of involvement in delinquent activities. Our review of the literature leads us to expect differential levels of bonding by race and across varying racial environments of schools, with resulting differential effects on delinquency. On the basis of a neighborhood sample of 942 adolescents, we identijj seven distinct dimensions of school bonding. The analysis reveals that blacks are at least as strongly bonded to the school as whites, that our model explains comparable amounts of variance in delinquency across race-sex subgroups, and that the racial composition of the school is generally unimportant in conditioning the effect of school bonding on delinquency. While our findings are generally supportive of control theory, a model that purports to be invariant across race, gender, and socioeconomic boundaries, we caution that such a conclusion may be both premature and mistaken. We discuss the implications of these findings and suggest that they be interpreted within a framework that also considers family and peer bonding.     

DELINQUENT PEERS IN CONTEXT: A LONGITUDINAL NETWORK ANALYSIS OF SELECTION AND INFLUENCE EFFECTS*

In this article, longitudinal social network data are analyzed to get a better understanding of the interplay between delinquent peers and delinquent behavior. These data contain detailed information about the social networks of secondary school students from the same grade, their delinquent behavior, and many relevant correlates of network formation and delinquency. To distinguish selection and influence processes, a method (Simulation Investigation for Empirical Network Analyses, SIENA) is used in which network formation and changes in delinquency are simulated simultaneously within the context of other network processes and correlates of delinquency. The data and the method used make it possible to investigate an unusually wide array of effects on peer selection and delinquent behavior. The results indicate that similarity in delinquency has no significant effect on the selection of school friends when other network dynamics are taken into account. However, the average delinquency level of someone's friends in the school network does have a significant, although relatively small, effect on delinquent behavior of the respondents, beyond significant effects of changes in the level of self‐control and morality. Another peer‐related change, leaving or joining informal street‐oriented youth groups, also appears to have a substantial effect on changes in delinquency.     

Part-time Jobs,Delinquency and Victimization Among Finnish Adolescents

Among lay people as well as among scholars it is sometimes assumed that adolescent work deters juvenile delinquency. In contrast, existing research suggests that there is a positive association between adolescent parttime work and delinquency. This study assesses this claim and examines in a nationally representative sample of 15-16-yearold Finnish adolescents ( n = 4347), the association between work during the school year and self-reported delinquency and victimization, and explore whether the possible associations are general or based on some subcategory of delinquent behaThere viour/victimization. The results of multivariate analyses indicate that intensive weekly working is significantly positively associated with delinquent behaviour. When gender, disposable allowances and various factors suggested by control, strain and differential association theories were controlled for, intensive work (10 hours or more remained a significant predictor of the following types of delinquency: beating up someone, driving without licence, buying stolen goods, vandalism at school and drunken driving. Intensive workers' likelihood of committing these acts were about two to per week) three times as high as nonworkers' likelihood of committing such acts. Intensive work was related to victimization only in bivariate models, suggesting that the work-victimization association does not reflect direct causation. In conclusion, intensive work appears to increase delinquent activity slightly. Although we do not argue that work is a major cause of delinquency in adolescence, we suggest caution against encouraging intensive work during the school year.     

Adolescent maltreatment, negative emotion, and delinquency: An assessment of general strain theory and family-based strain

This study used data from a national sample of youth (N = 1,423) to test hypotheses derived from Robert Agnew's (1992, 2001) general strain theory concerning the relationship between adolescent maltreatment and delinquent behavior. Specifically, it focused on the extent to which the effect of maltreatment on general delinquency, serious delinquency, and substance use was mediated by negative emotions in the form of anger, anxiety, and depression. Results lend partial support to the theory. Confirming the importance of parent-child problems as a source of strain leading to delinquency, findings from ordinary least squares regression models revealed a significant association between maltreatment and all three forms of delinquent behavior. Although findings also showed that negative emotions are key intervening mechanisms influencing the magnitude of the direct effect of strain, maltreatment continued to exert significant effects even after controlling for negative emotions and both individual and family characteristics.     

ANTISOCIAL BEHAVIOR AND YOUTH GANG MEMBERSHIP: SELECTION AND SOCIALIZATION

We examine whether gang membership is associated with higher levels of delinquency because boys predisposed to delinquent activity are more likely than others to join. We use 10 years of longitudinal data from 858 participants of the Pittsburgh Youth Study to identify periods before, during and after gang membership. We build on prior research by controlling for ages and calendar time, by better accounting for gang memberships that occurred before the study began, and by using fixed effects statistical models. We find more evidence than has been found in prior studies that boys who join gangs are more delinquent before entering the gang than those who do not join. Even with such selective differences, however, we replicate research showing that drug selling, drug use, violent behaviors and vandalism of property increase significantly when a youth joins a gang. The delinquency of peers appears to be one mechanism of socialization. These findings are clearest in youth self-reports, but are also evident in reports from parents and teachers on boys' behavior and delinquency. Once we adjust for time trends, we find that the increase in delinquency is temporary, that delinquency falls to pre-gang levels when boys leave gangs.     

AN EMPIRICAL TEST OF GENERAL STRAIN THEORY*

This paper tests Agnew's (1992) general strain theory (GST) of crime and delinquency. GST argues that strain occurs when others (1) prevent or threaten to prevent you from achieving positively valued goals, (2) remove or threaten to remove positively valued stimuli that you possess, or (3) present or threaten to present you with noxious or negatively valued stimuli. The impact of such strain on delinquency is said to be conditioned by several variables, such as association with delinquent peers and self-efficacy. Data from a sample of 1,380 New Jersey adolescents provide qualified support for the theory; strain measures of the type described above have a relatively substantial effect on delinquency and drug use. Further, the effect of these strain measures is conditioned by delinquent peers and self-efficacy, as predicted by GST.     

Racial composition,sentencing reforms,and rates of incarceration, 1970–1980

Association with delinquent peer groups is one of the most salient predictors of delinquent behavior. Despite the widespread documentation of these effects, little is known about whether the delinquent peer effect is conditioned by individual‐level characteristics. Using data from a multi‐wave survey of Mexican‐American adolescents, this study explored the interactive effect of susceptibility to peer influence and differential association with delinquent peers on delinquent outcomes. Results suggested that the delinquent peer effect on self‐reported delinquency is amplified when an adolescent is highly susceptible to peer influence. Analyses also indicated that this moderating effect varies according to offense seriousness. Specifically, the conditioning effect is most important when considering acts of serious delinquency.     

Growing Up Poor: Examining the Link Between Persistent Childhood Poverty and Delinquency

Findings from aggregate-level and ethnographic research suggest that poverty and delinquency are related. The inability of individual-level quantitative research to demonstrate consistent evidence of this relationship, however, has been used to call into question whether poverty is indeed related to an increased propensity for delinquent involvement. This may be due to the difficulty individual-level analyses have in identifying the group most important in uncovering the relationship of poverty to delinquency—those individuals that experience persistent childhood poverty. This paper provides an assessment of the effects of both the level of exposure to poverty and its timing on delinquent involvement using fourteen years of longitudinal data for a national sample of younger adolescents. Findings indicate that exposure to poverty and the timing of such exposure are indeed related to an increased likelihood of involvement in delinquency.     

A Developmental-Ecological Model of the Relation of Family Functioning to Patterns of Delinquency

Person-centered approaches to understanding delinquent and criminal careershave identified several distinct pathways or patterns of delinquent behavior(Gorman-Smith et al., 1998; LeBlanc and Kaspy, in press; Loeber et al.,1991; Loeber et al., 1993). In addition, research suggests that there maybe etiological variations that correspond to these different pathways(Gorman-Smith et al., 1998). That is, there may be different configurationsof risk factors associated with different types of delinquent and criminaloffending. If this is so, understanding these relations can have importantimplications for intervention and prevention. However, there have been fewstudies that examine how the configuration of risk factors may vary inrelation to different delinquency pathways. The current study brings aperson-centered analysis to examine how patterns of family functioningrelate to patterns of offending. In addition, this study contextualizesthese relations by examining how these relations vary as a function ofcommunity setting. This study expands upon previous research that hasidentified four basic patterns of delinquent behavior among a sample ofminority male adolescents living in poor urban neighborhoods (Gorman-Smithet al., 1998).     

THE DYNAMICS OF DELINQUENT PEERS AND DELINQUENT BEHAVIOR*

This analysis examines the dynamic reciprocal relationship between delinquent peer associations and delinquent behavior. It tests the hypothesis, derived from learning and interactional theories, that delinquent peers and delinquent behavior are reciprocally related—delinquent peer associations foster future delinquency, and delinquency increases the likelihood of associating with delinquent peers. It also tests the competing hypothesis, derived from control theories, that delinquent peers do not cause delinquency, but instead, the relationship is (1) spurious due to individual criminal propensity, (2) a result of the effects of delinquent behavior on future associations with delinquent peers, or (3) an artifact of problems of measuring delinquent peers. To test these propositions, we use data from the National Youth Survey and estimate a cross-lagged panel model that corrects for measurement error in indicators of delinquent peers and delinquent behavior. The model species a covariance structure model for ordinal measures. Parameters are estimated by (1) estimating a threshold model relating ordinal measures to continuous latent variables; (2) estimating a matrix of polychoric correlations relating observed variables, and (3) using an asymptotic distribution-free estimator to estimate structural parameters. The results suggest that delinquent peer associations and delinquent behavior are reciprocally related, but the effect of delinquency on peer associations is larger than that of peer associations on delinquency.     

Family Correlates of Male and Female Delinquency

This article examines sex differences in family bonds as a possible explanation of sex differences in self-reported delinquent behavior (SRD) among a national probability sample of 1725 adolescents. It was hypothesized that girls would report significantly stronger family bonds and significantly lower delinquency than boys. The findings provide limited support for these hypotheses. The expected sex differences in SRD were observed. males report significantly greater involvement in all forms of delinquent behavior. However, the expected sex differences in family bonds were not observed. Family bonds are modestly correlated with delinquency, but at comparable rates for males and females, and with evidence of their greater association among males in many cases. Theoretical and methodological explanations are suggested for the divergence of the observed findings from existing research.     

Birth order and youth delinquent behaviour testing the differential parental control hypothesis in a french representative sample

Studies on delinquent behaviour have frequently shown that firstborn children are less involved in delinquency than middle-born children. We suggest that differential parental control of the children depending on their ordinal position might account for this phenomenon. The study, carried out with a French representative sample (n=1129), indicated that firstborns were more supervised than middle-borns. Firstborns reported less minor offences and serious offences than middle-born children. However, when sibship size and parental supervision were controlled in a subsequent analysis of covariance, the effect of ordinal position on serious offences disappeared, whereas the birth-order effect on minor offences declined but remained significant. It is concluded that ordinal position plays a moderate role in delinquent behaviour and that this effect is partly induced by differential parental control.     

A Life-Course Perspective on Stress,Delinquency, and Young Adult Crime

This study uses General Strain Theory (GST) to describe and examine one potential pathway of delinquency/crime escalation and de-escalation across adolescence and young adulthood. In particular, the time-varying consequences for delinquent behavior and young adult crime of persistent or increasing levels of strain are addressed using data from the Family Health Study, an eight-year longitudinal data set (n = 840). The results indicate that there is a positive association between experiencing one type of strain—stressful life events—and involvement in delinquent or criminal behavior during this period of the life-course. However, the impact of stressful life events on these behaviors is diminished among young adults. Moreover, delinquent/criminal peer associations attenuate the age-specific effects of stressful life events, thus suggesting that peers play a central role in the association between strain and these behaviors. Implications of the results for theory and policy are discussed.     

Groups, gangs, and delinquency: Does organization matter?

Purpose

A consistent finding of research on delinquency has been that gang members show higher levels of delinquent behavior than non-gang members. However, research attempting to understand the mechanisms underlying this finding is lacking. The basic premise of the current article is that the level of organization found in delinquent groups and gangs matters in clarifying the relationship between membership and delinquency.

Methods

This article examined the association between organization and delinquency in a sample of 523 self-reported juvenile offenders from a high school survey conducted in the province of Quebec, Canada.

Results

The results showed that 1) there is clearly something special about membership in a gang that influences delinquency beyond the more general membership in a delinquent group; 2) the key to understanding finding lies, in part, in the level of organization found in gangs. Organization emerged as the most important factor associated with general delinquency, involvement in violence, and in drug supply offences, significantly (but not completely) reducing the effect of gang membership on delinquency.

Conclusions

Even if most delinquent associations show little signs of formal structure and organization, this study demonstrates the importance of organization as a key mechanism to understand the gang effect on delinquency.