The Tangled Web: Delinquency, Deception, and Parental Attachment

Delinquent youth display weaker attachment to their parents than do other youth, but the reasons for this remain unclear. One explanation is that delinquent youth poison their relations with parents by lying to them about their friends, behavior, whereabouts, and more. Analysis of data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health reveals that lying to parents is an exceptionally strong and robust correlate of delinquent behavior, and is associated with a variety of surreptitious behaviors – late bedtimes, hanging with friends, concealing whereabouts. Lying to parents appears to have a progressively negative impact on the parent-child bond, meaning that the well-established attachment/delinquency association is not solely a parent effect. Youth who lie to their parents do not appear to do so blithely, however. Compared to other youth, they hold themselves in lower regard and are more often depressed. Although parents are often angered by and distrustful of deceitful children, their children's fabrications may say less about their regard for their parents than about the strength of other loyalties.

A Model of Sexual Abuse’s Effects on Suicidal Behavior and Delinquency: The Role of Emotions as Mediating Factors

Drawing on Agnew’s general strain theory, we examined whether depressed mood and anger mediated the effects of sexual abuse on suicidal behavior and delinquency. Participants included 9,113 students attending high schools in Iceland. Structural equation modeling showed that, while controlling for family structure and parental education, being exposed to strain in the form of sexual abuse was positively related to both depressed mood and anger. The effects of sexual abuse on suicidal behavior of both boys and girls were twice as strong through depressed mood as through anger. The effects of sexual abuse on outwardly-directed forms of delinquency for both genders were stronger through anger than through depressed mood. These findings highlight the complex nature of the effects of strain on adolescents’ emotions and behavior. Moreover, they show that depression—in contrast to outwardly-directed delinquency, where feelings of anger are predominantly influential—is more relevant than anger to suicidal behavior.

Athletic Involvement and Adolescent Delinquency

Athough conventional wisdom suggests that organized sport deters delinquency by building character, structuring adolescents’ time, and providing incentives for socially approved behavior, the empirical evidence to date has been mixed. Based on a sample of approximately 600 Western New York adolescents, the present study examined how self-reported jock identity, school athlete status, and frequency of athletic activity differentially influenced a range of delinquent behaviors. Neither athlete status nor frequency of athletic activity predicted these behaviors; however, jock identity was associated with significantly more incidents of delinquency. This finding was robust across both gender and race. Follow-up analyses indicated that jock identity facilitated both minor and major delinquency, with major delinquency effects for white but not black adolescents. Research scientist at the Research Institute on Addictions and adjunct assistant professor of sociology at the University at Buffalo, SUNY. Her research interests focus primarily on adolescent and young adult health-risk behaviors such as substance use, sexual risk-taking, and suicidality. She is the principal investigator of a exploratory study of athletic involvement, gender, and substance use by college students. Professor of physical education and sport at S.U.N.Y. Brockport for 33 years. A native New Yorker, he has also held adjunct faculty appointments at universities in Finland, Israel, England, New Zealand, and Norway. He has authored or edited nearly a hundred publications in physical education, sociology of sport, and social psychology of sport, including Sports Fans: The Psychology and Social Impact of Spectators (Routledge) and Contemporary Issues in Sociology of Sport (Human Kinetics). Senior research scientist at the Research Institute on Addictions and adjunct associate professor of sociology at the University at Buffalo, SUNY. Her research interests include family influences on the development of adolescent substance use and other problem behaviors, including gambling. Professor of sociology at D’Youville College, and director of the Center for Research on Physical Activity, Sport & Health. He has conducted numerous nationwide studies of the links among sport, health, and educational outcomes. An avid scholar on gender relations, his recent book Prison Masculinities (Temple University) focuses on the USA prison system. Professor of sociology at the University at Buffalo, SUNY. Author of numerous articles and books on adolescent and parental development in families and groups, his most recent book is Collaborative Circles: Friendship Dynamics and Creative Work (University of Chicago).     

Measuring community social organization: Sense of community as a mediator in social disorganization theory

The current study utilized an updated systemic model of social disorganization to investigate neighborhood effects on both positive and negative youth outcomes. Although empirical support for updated social disorganization models has increased in recent years, the field continues to rely too heavily on behavioral indicators of community social organization. Unfortunately, these measures do not assess the truly important social processes and dynamics that result in cohesive and supportive neighborhoods. It was proposed that sense of community (SOC) was a more valid, comprehensive, and applicable measure for the mediating variables in social disorganization theory. Results supported the hypothesis that SOC mediates the effect of neighborhood disadvantage on youth outcomes and implications for the field are discussed.     

论未成年人犯罪的法律适用

未成年人可塑性大 ,易走向犯罪深渊 ,也易改造。因此 ,在未成年人犯罪的法律适用方面 ,应根据我国法律对未成年人特殊保护的精神 ,坚持教育为主、处罚为辅的原则 ,实行教育、感化、挽救的方针 ,为他们回归社会创造更好的社会环境     

Compounded Risk: The Implications for Delinquency of Coming from a Poor Family that Lives in a Poor Community

The relationship between poverty and juvenile involvement in delinquency remains central to the study of adolescent development, but firm conclusions on this relationship have been elusive. The purpose of this study is to address an important limitation of prior research that often has been overlooked. This involves the standard practice of examining the poverty-delinquency relationship with an exclusive focus on the family's level of poverty. This study considers that the effects of family poverty on delinquency may significantly depend upon the level of poverty in the community in which the family lives. Specifically, drawing from a number of poverty-oriented theories of delinquency, we examine the hypothesis that community poverty amplifies the effects of family poverty, such that family poverty's effect becomes greater when community poverty also is high. Using data from a national sample of adolescents that are supplemented with U.S. census data, we find partial support for the idea that family poverty is consequential for delinquency, and that this is especially true for poor families that also live in poor communities.

手机短信违法犯罪的分析与思考

近年来,一些不法分子屡屡利用手机短信违法犯罪,严重干扰了广大人民群众的正常生活,扰乱了社会治安秩序,成为一种新的污染和社会公害。然而,从根本上控制利用手机短信进行违法犯罪已成为摆在公安工作面前的一项新课题。