Abstract
This paper examines the relationship between broken homes and delinquency among two samples of U.S. children interviewed in 1967 and 1972. When family context is operationalized as a simple dichotomy (broken versus intact homes), broken homes are more highly associated with “family” offenses such as running away and truancy than with other types of juvenile misconduct. When family context is defined more explicitly, the number of absent biological parents as well as the presence of a stepparent strongly affects some types of juvenile misconduct. However, neither parent-specific absence (mother versus father missing) nor reason for the break-up (death versus divorce or separation) has any effect. I conclude that studies which suggest that broken homes are not an important causal factor are misleading because of their inadequate operational definitions of both family context and delinquency.
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