Forms Of Delinquency Research Articles

THE METHODS OF DELINQUENCY THEORY*

Delinquency theory must come to terms with experimental studies of causation and with existential studies of delinquents in situ The three are closely related. Existential studies provide insight into both the forms of delinquency and its causal matrix, and causal studies suggest both the relevant context and lawful regularities in the nature of delinquency. Moreover, using the concepts of domain and generality, one sees that strain “theory” is not a theory but a causal paradigm and that it is not competitive with control theory. One also finds that social control theory and cultural deviance are parallel in that both deal essentially with conforming behavior.

LONGITUDINAL PREDICTORS OF SERIOUS SUBSTANCE USE AND DELINQUENCY*

The present study tests the validity of a common‐cause model in explaining both serious substance use and serious delinquent behavior among youths. Longitudinal data on 441 male and 441 female adolescents are analyzed. Youths originally tested at Time 1 when they were 12, 15, or 18 years old were retested three years later when they were 15, 18, or 21 years old. The results provide modest support for a common‐cause model. While a number of predictor variables drawn from control theory and differential association theory are related to both behaviors, those drawn from the literature on psychological correlates of adolescent deviance tend to be more strongly related to subsequent serious substance use than to serious delinquency. The findings suggest that there is a degree of etiological independence in serious adolescent substance use and serious forms of delinquency. The implications of these results for theory development and policy implementation are discussed.

From status to delinquent offenses: Escalation?

An important issue in juvenile justice today is whether the juvenile court should maintain or abandon its present legal jurisdiction over status offenders. Arguments in favor of retaining such jurisdiction are often based on the relatively untested assumption of career “escalation”—the idea that juvenile misbehaviors, if left untreated, will increase in seriousness with age from status offenses to more serious forms of delinquency. However, our analysis of self-reported surveys from a national panel of boys indicates that patterns of juvenile misbehaviors are more likely to be stable or constant over time than to increase in seriousness. The policy implications of these findings are discussed.

The epidemiology of adolescent sex-role attitudes

This study examines the epidemiology of sex-role attitudes among a national probability sample of 1,626 American adolescents. The results of this study generally corroborate earlier findings with more limited samples: More traditional sex-role attitudes are reported by male, lower-class, and minority respondents. The magnitude of the sex difference overshadows the remaining differences. In addition, the impact of sex-role attitudes on conventional and delinquent behaviors and values was assessed. Sex-role groups differ in their involvement in the conventional settings of family, school, religion, and work, as well as in minor forms of delinquency and in their values concerning conventional and delinquent behaviors. The findings are discussed in terms of their contribution to our general understanding of adolescent sex-role attitudes.

Social Class and Delinquency in Cross-Cultural Perspective

In advanced industrial societies, the probability of delinquent status is associated with the lowest social strata, and the probability of lower-class status is associated with the most serious forms of delinquency. Otherwise, the class-crime relationship is a myth. Class-based theories are more likely to find empirical support in less developed societies where people are classified at birth into groups with distinct views of life, distinct values, and distinct socialization practices. Since education plays a part in minimizing these differences, access to the school system also plays a part in this minimization. In Korea, official statistics indicate that criminal behavior is largely confined to the lower class. The findings of a self-report study of 418 middle and high school youth in Seoul showed that access to the regular school system tended to reduce involvement of lower class boys in delinquent behavior. Apart from access to the educational system, the probability of delinquent status is associated with lower-class status, and the probability of lower-class status is associated with criminal or delinquent status. Thus, class remains an important factor in the explanation of delinquency when educational opportunity is lacking.

Delinquency Involvement: An Evaluation of the Non-Intervention Strategy

The official response by agents of the juvenile justice system to adolescent involvement in victimless and status offenses currently is under attack from a variety of sources. While several complex issues are involved in the debate concerning the proper handling of such offenders (the inherent vagueness of the statutes, and whether or not their codification and enforcement violates constitutionally guaranteed rights, for example), this paper is concerned only with the non-intervention argument that the official processing of such offenders be discontinued. The primary rationale underlying the non-intervention strategy is that not only are such offenders involved in relatively petty forms of delinquency, but also that they are unlikely to participate in more serious types of misbehavior. As such, proponents of this view suggest that since official processing only can have the negative consequences of stigmatization and the production of increased levels and more serious forms of delinquency involvement, it should be avoided. Self-report data collected from a representative sample of 412 male high school students provide little support for these assumptions. Rather than being specialized, as suggested at least implicitly by the non-intervention approach, these data indicate that delinquency involvement is quite versatile, typically including participation in a wide variety of offense types. While involvement in victimless offenses is the most frequent delinquent activity, such concentration does not preclude significant participation in more serious property and personal offenses. In fact, high levels of involvement in victimless offenses is strongly associated with high levels of participation in property and personal offenses. As a result, and while recognizing that many of the existing delinquency statutes are certainly open to criticism on numerous grounds, any strategy based on the assumption that victimless offenders are unlikely to be involved in other more serious delinquent activities as a rationale for non-intervention appears untenable in light of the findings reported in this study.

Social Class and Relative Level of Occupational Aspiration

The study reported here confirms early research suggesting that boys low on the socioeconomic scale tend to have unrealistic occupational aspirations, with resulting discontent and de linquency. Certain forms of delinquency may thus be system-generated rather than simply the outcome of behavioral characteristics of youth. Mr. Forslund and Mr. Malry spell out the signi ficance of their findings for the secondary schools.

Intra-Family Communication and Juvenile Delinquency

This review of but a small amount of the empirical and theoretical research should suffice to indicate the areas of focus and concern in relating family and home environment with juvenile delinquency. It is evident that significance is attached to family cohesion, affection and adjustment both between the parents and between parent and child. Many authors (Udry, 1966; Blood and Wolfe, 1960) maintain that communication is a basle ingredient for a successful marriage. The open communication between spouses facilitates an understanding of expectations, interests, and frustrations. A marriage void of communication may lead to inhibited and ritualistic discussions, inner frustrations, and an absence of expectations and desires. If one accepts this position concerning communication between spouses, then there is reason to believe that based on the above-cited works, facilitation of the channels of communication within the family may influence the delinquency of the children. It appears plausible that a child who perceives the channels of communication within his family to be dosed may feel alienated from the family as a primary group. Without communication, the child may feel that the parents are not interested in his ideas and behavior, that the parents underestimate his desires and expectations, and that the parents reject him. Without communication the parents may not, indeed, be aware of the child's desires, values, and actions and may not succeed in transmitting their own values to the child. Although the parents would not condone delinquent behavior, as a result of their lack of communication with the child the parents may, by remaining silent, be sanctioning behavior of which the child feels the parents are aware. That is, if the child engages in delinquent behavior and feels that the parents are aware of that behavior, then he expects some negative sanctioning by his parents; due to the lack of communication, the parents may not be aware of the behavior, they do not sanction the child, and thereby reinforce his delinquent behavior. A lack of communication of this nature indicates a misunderstanding between parents and child concerning acceptable behavior and values. With the assumptions set forth above, it is of value to investigate the relationship between communication within the family and the delinquency of the child. It is the intention of this paper to ascertain: (1) the degree of communication that exists between the parents and the child concerning the child's participation in various forms of delinquent behavior; (2) the degree of communication that exists between the parents and the child concerning the punishment to be meted out for such behaviors; and (3) the effect of this communication on the child's participation in delinquent forms of behavior. KEYWORDS: Juvenile justice; juvenile delinquency

Anxiety as a function of psychomotor and social behaviour.

The aim of this study was to investigate the relation between (a) psychomotor behaviour, in the form of manual response to visual signals, (b) task difficulty, and (c) social behaviour, in the form of delinquency in a military milieu. The psychomotor response was measured in terms of amplitude and duration of manual movement. Significant association was established between psychomotor and subsequent social behaviour. The delinquent groups showed over‐activity, in a sense defined. Overactivity has been found typical of anxiety in other experimental and clinical observations.The theoretical implications of the observed association are discussed in terms of Hullian learning theory and the Brown‐Farber theory of frustration. It is suggested that the difference between the response patterns of the delinquent and non‐delinquent groups may be accounted for in terms of the Brown‐Farber formulation, under certain conditions. These require the assumption of a factor operative as a personality constant, affecting the strength of the avoidance impulse. A three‐factor function of anxiety is suggested. The psychomotor and social behaviour of the delinquent group are held to show a common feature of extreme avoidance‐tendency in frustrating circumstances.

Drunkenness

The familiar process of the elimination of factors from a confused equation is bringing a new stage of progress and of hope in dealing with the form of delinquency which is most distinctive of the English-speaking nations. Until now the forces of alcoholism have nearly always been given the choice of weapons. Too often unreason and ill-restraint have been matched against their like, with the result of only further intrenching the hostile power.