Social Class and Delinquency: Predictions and Outcomes of Police-Juvenile Encounters

Abstract

Three types of data present police images of delinquency, their estimates of the delinquent involvement of boys from different social class backgrounds, and their predictions, on the basis of first official contacts, of individual boys subsequently repeating. Police in widely different settings base their judgments on “street” experience and similar theories of delinquency causation linking social class background, parental neglect, and delinquent behavior. They see lower-class boys as more likely to be involved in delinquent conduct than boys with other family and social class backgrounds. These views are closely matched by official contacts, though patterns vary in each of the cities studied. Officers' predictions for individual boys prove to be inaccurate, measured by official contact records over a six-year period.