TWO ROUTES TO DELINQUENCY: DIFFERENCES BETWEEN EARLY AND LATE STARTERS IN THE IMPACT OF PARENTING AND DEVIANT PEERS*

This paper tests hypotheses concerning differences in the determinants of involvement with the criminal justice system for adolescents who show early versus late onset of delinquency. Four waves of data collected on 177 adolescent boys living in small towns in the midwest were used to test the hypotheses. For late starters, quality of parenting predicted affiliation with deviant peers, which was associated in turn with criminal justice system involvement. Oppositional/defiant behavior was unrelated both to affiliation with deviant peers and to involvement with the criminal justice system. For early starters, on the other hand, quality of parenting predicted oppositional/defiant behavior. This behavior pattern predicted affiliation with deviant peers, which in turn predicted criminal justice system involvement. Further, we found evidence of an interaction effect for early starters: criminal justice system involvement was highest for those youths who both were oppositional/defiant and had deviant friends. Overall the findings support the idea of different routes to criminal behavior and arrest for early versus late starters.     

THEORY AND IDEOLOGY IN MARXIST CRIMINOLOGY

Marxist criminology can be analyzed both as a theory of what is and as an ideology of what ought to be. theory must be examined by logic and empirical evidence. An ideology and its vision of the good society must be examined by comparison with other ideologies and real societies based on competing ideologies. Such comparisons would reveal that societies based on Marxist ideology have been unjust and repressive and do not represent a future for which criminologists should strive as Quinney urges them to do.     

TRIAL COURTS' RESPONSES TO SUPREME COURT POLICY CHANGES

This is an exploratory study focusing on the response of federal district courts to Supreme Court changes in three policy areas: economic regulation, civil liberties, and criminal justice. An analysis of federal district court opinions published in the Federal Supplement before and after the Supreme Court decisions announcing the policy changes indicated that opinion-writing patterns of federal district judges changed in a manner consistent with the Supreme Court's new direction. Further study of the federal district courts' role in the policy process is recommended and suggestions for such research are made.     

An Overview of Budgeting Formats

Budgeting is more than collecting revenue and expenditure estimates. It is a fiscal process by which law enforcement officials select objectives and design ways to achieve those objectives. A budget, in other words, is a systematic plan which indicates where the money will come from, how much will be spent, and what it will be spent for. A budget is a fiscal plan for a given period of time.

Although a variety of budgeting formats exist, this article discusses the four which are the most widely used today—line-item budgeting, program budgeting, performance budgeting, and zero-based budgeting. Understanding the various types of budgeting formats enables law enforcement officials to improve resource allocation and operation effectiveness and to develop short- and long-term plans for future operations. As long as resources continue to be scarce and retrenchment management is operative, law enforcement officials need to understand the budgeting formats discussed in this article.     

CRIMINALS' AND NONCRIMINALS' PERCEPTIONS OF URBAN CRIME

This paper offers an exploration of criminals’ and non-criminals’ perceptions of crime in an urban milieu. Specifically. we examine perceptions of the incidence of crime within the city, of variations in police pratection. and of variations in the likely difficulty of committing crimes in different parts of the city. The analysis examines the distinctiveness of; and interrelationships among, these variables controlling for the racial status and criminal-non-criminal status of the respandents. Additionally. perceptions of the difficulty of committing crimes m different parts of the city are related to generalized perceptions of the city for our racial subgroups of criminals. The results provide evidence on the distinctiveness of criminals in such terms, on some factors influencing strategic criminal decision-making, and on ways m which criminal behavior shares common elements with other social behavior.     

A TEST OF LATENT TRAIT VERSUS LIFECOURSE PERSPECTIVES ON THE STABILITY OF ADOLESCENT ANTISOCIAL BEHAVIOR*

Latent trait and life-course theories provide contrasting interpretations of the well-established finding that childhood antisocial behavior often precedes adolescent conduct problems and adult crime. Longitudinal data from 179 boys and their parents were used to test hypotheses derived from the two theoretical perspectives. The findings largely supported the life-course view. Oppositional behavior during late childhood predicted reductions in quality of parenting and school commitment and increased affiliation with deviant peers. These changes, in turn, predicted conduct problems during early adolescence. Although there was a moderately strong bivariate correlation between childhood antisocial behavior and adolescent conduct problems, there was no longer an association between these constructs when the effects of parenting, school, and peers were taken into account. Further, there was evidence that improved parenting, increased school commitment, or reduced affiliation with deviant peers lowered the probability that boys who were oppositional during childhood would graduate to delinquency and drug use during adolescence. Together, these findings suggest that the correlation between childhood and adolescent deviant behavior reflects a developmental process rather than a latent antisocial trait.     

LEGAL AND JUDICIAL INTERPRETATION OF COMPETENCY TO STAND TRIAL STATUTES AND PROCEDURES

This study provides an analysis of the views of the legal community with respect to competency to stand trial statutes and procedures. Responses from North Carolina judges and defense attorneys reveal significant areas of disagreement or misunderstanding. While many judges believed that defense attorneys misunderstood or misused the competency procedures, the judges uniformly granted the motions. Defense attorneys indicated reasons for requesting competency evaluations that were frequently unrelated to concerns about competency. Hearings to determine competency were often not even held, and if a defendant was found to be incompetent. most judges believed that involuntary commitment to a mental institution should be automatic regardless of perceived dangerousness. The authors argue that these issues demand further attention and resolution to allow the competency laws to accomplish their intended goal without jeopardizing defendants’ rights.     

SOCIAL STATUS AND DEVIANCE

The relationship between social class and four measures of deviance was examined within the context of schools with predominantly upper-middleclass. middle-class, and working-class populations. The hypothesis that there would be significant inverse relationships between social class and rates of deviant behavior within working-class but not upper-middle- or middle-class schools was not supported by our data. There also was no consistent support found for the hypothesis that working-class schools should have higher rates of deviance. The fact that even when we contextualize the social class/delinquency relationship we fail to find a significant inverse relationship, further confirms the conclusion that social class does not appear to be an important predictor of delinquency.