Self-Reported Juvenile Delinquency in Kuwait

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper is based on a self-reported juvenile delinquency study conducted among high school students in Kuwait, a rapidly developing Arab speaking Muslim Persian-Gulf country. A group-interview-questionnaire was administered to a sample of 483 male students in grades 10 and 11 enrolled in four high schools located in the four Governerates. Specifically we measured the interrelationship between delinquency and selected variables that have been found to be associated with delinquency in the United States. The study findings disclosed three delinquency patterns: auto offenses, vandalism, and kissing and/or touching a female. On the basis of frequency and kind of delinquent acts, usual number of accomplices, friends' degree of delinquency and stated reasons for committing delinquent acts, we classified the respondents into three delinquent types: (I) Mild, (II) Moderate, and (III) Serious delinquents. While all subjects in type I and most in type II were found to be non-delinquent or episodic offen...