Trends In Delinquency Research Articles

Delinquency, unstructured socializing, and social change: The rise and fall of a teen culture of independence

AbstractThis article delves into the connections between time trends in unstructured socializing and other dramatic changes in adolescence since the 1950s. Osgood et al.’s (1996) individual‐level application of routine activity theory proposed that unstructured socializing contributes to crime by exposing people to situations conducive to deviance, and a large body of research supports this idea. Unstructured socializing has proven useful as an explanatory bridge that links crime and deviance to key social factors like age, class, and gender. The present article expands on two recent studies (Baumer et al., 2021; Svensson & Oberwittler, 2021), which showed that changing rates of unstructured socializing help explain time trends in delinquency as well. Based on time trends across many domains of adolescent life, I argue that changes in unstructured socializing were a manifestation of the rise and fall of a teen culture of independence from the 1950s to the 2020s. The effectiveness of unstructured socializing as an explanatory bridge demonstrates the value of focusing on ordinary, everyday activities for tapping into features of life that are consequential and that vary across social conditions.

Why is the Default Rate So Low? How Economic Conditions and Public Policies Have Shaped Mortgage and Auto Delinquencies During the COVID-19 Pandemic

<ns2:p>Delinquencies and defaults on household debt typically closely follow the business cycle. As economic conditions deteriorate, falling employment and incomes put a strain on family finances, leading to a rise in missed debt payments and defaults. Yet, against the backdrop of a historic rise in unemployment associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, delinquencies have fallen. This FEDS Note documents trends in delinquency on mortgages and auto loans during the COVID-19 pandemic, and unpacks how changes in economic conditions and public policies have been associated with borrowers’ debt repayment behavior.</ns2:p>

SEM Application to Investigate Social Studies Learning and Mass Media Impacts on Assertive Behavior and Juvenile Delinquency Trends

Theoretically the adolescent psychological development is a transition period which marked by changes in biological, psychological and social aspects. Empirically, the increasing trend of juvenile delinquency is caused by the inability of the early adolescents to be assertive so that their personality become weak and they can easily fall into negative things. This study aimed at determining the extent to which student perception about learning social studies and mass media have the influence on assertive behaviour and juvenile delinquency trend in Junior High School in West Java Province, Indonesia. Collecting data through questionnaires to 458 respondents. Data were analyzed by Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) with two-stages testing are measurement model and structural model using application software Analysis of Moment Structure (AMOS). The two exogenous variables are student perceptions about learning social studies, and mass media have a significant effect on students assertive behaviour and juvenile delinquency trend.

Contrasts Between Young Males Dying by Suicide, Those Dying From Other Causes and Those Still Living: Observations From the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent to Adult Health

Utilizing Add Health longitudinal data, we compared 21 male suicide casualties to 10,101 living respondents identifying suicide correlates. Method: 21 suicide decedents completed surveys in 1994/1995 (Wave 1) and 11 completed at Wave 3; responses were compared with Chi-square and oneway ANOVA tests. Results: Suicide decedents were prone to higher delinquency and fighting at Wave 1, but not at Wave 3. At Wave 1 suicide decedents remained undistinguished from living respondents in depression, self-esteem, and drug uses. Yet, after Wave 3, the 11 respondents dying by suicide showed significantly higher depression, drug use and lower self-esteem. Conclusion: Delinquency trends can readily understood, but more complex causes are needed to account for unexpected changes in self-esteem, depression and drug uses.

Psychosocial and genetic risk markers for longitudinal trends in delinquency: an empirical assessment and practical discussion

The increased use of biosocial perspectives in criminological research has expanded the scope of factors considered in understanding the etiology of adolescent antisocial behavior. At the same time, its practical utility for preventive and remedial intervention has not been examined to the same degree. Using a large, nationally representative sample of youth (N = 2573) and a series of latent growth curve models, this study examines the relative utility of a psychosocial risk composite and genetic indicators (DRD2, DRD4, DAT1, 5-HTTLPR, MAO-A) in predicting the onset and later developmental patterns of adolescent and early adult delinquency and criminal behavior. The results show that the psychosocial risk composite measure has significant effects on the latent growth factors, while the main and interactive effects of the genetic indicators do not. The subsequent discussion considers the practical implications of these empirical findings in the context of extant research and pinpoints some possible future applications of this area of research. It also identifies some parallel cases of translational criminology that may serve as indications of how this research might inform policy and practice going forward.

Interventions with young female offenders and teenage girls at risk: alternative educational services in a Singapore girls' home

This article presents factors that place girls at risk of delinquency and offending as well as the patterns in juvenile delinquency trends for females in Singapore. The authors also describe Singapore's overall structure of services for young offenders and the current status of alternative education programmes for young women engaged in delinquent behaviours and at‐risk teenage girls. The unique features of a Singapore girls' home are then highlighted. Finally, implications for juvenile educational programming are considered.

Real Estate Tax Delinquency: Private Disinvestment and Public Response

Real estate tax delinquency is emerging as a major component of the urban fiscal crisis, affecting cities as diverse as Houston, Pittsburgh, New York, and Atlanta. A large and increasing proportion of uncollected taxes wreak havoc with any city's budgetary and planning process. Even more important, a growing rate of tax delinquency is symptomatic of fundamental changes in the role of the city in the American political economy. This study examines tax delinquency as a component of the flight of private capital from the central city. Delinquency trends in forty-eight cities over a twenty-five-year period are analyzed to set the national context, and an in-depth case study examines the problem at the neighborhood level. Interviews with 158 delinquent property owners uncover the reasoning behind the delinquency decision. Public policy options are evaluated in light of the severe practical and ideological limitations on public response to private disinvestment. Lake provides a brief survey of the available literature on tax delinquency, at both city-wide and neighborhood scales, focusing on the change in emphasis over time from a concern with administrative remedies to a search for systemic solutions. An overview of housing and demographic trends affecting the City of Pittsburgh in recent years is examined in depth. Lake surveys property owners to delve into the behavior of delinquent owners and concludes with discussing the City's role and implications for policy. Improving the situation is considered in terms of avoiding the conditions that lead to delinquency, and improving the city's capability of administering parcels acquired through tax-taking mechanisms.

Delinquent Generations in New Zealand

Application of Wilkins' "delinquent generations" hypothesis to New Zealand Children's Court statistics for 1947-60 suggests that, as theorized, social disturbances associated with the Second World War (1939-1945) had affected certain cohorts of children born during or just before it, in such a way as to render them more likely than other children to appear before the Children's Court later in life. An independent method of analysis, based on the theory of normalization of variables with large means, leads to the same conclusion. It further shows that the results are highly significant in the sense of statistical theory. The hypothesis put forward by Wilkins, which has survived tests in England and Wales, Scotland, Denmark, and now New Zealand, is clearly a contribution of some importance to the understanding of international trends in delinquency.

On the Trend in Delinquency

Trends in delinquency may be determined in localities which record and handle the problem in a consistent and systematic manner. In spite of seeming departures from the pattern for some communities, basic fluctuations in delinquency can be observed corresponding to changes in the social climate such as during and after war periods and economic cycles. Philadelphia data afford a good example of the way delinquency rates have varied, and show how persistent the problem has been. The trend in the Negro and the white rates in Philadelphia indicates that the relative position of the two groups has remained unaltered despite Negro advancement in other fields, and suggests a basic subcultural difference.

Juvenile Delinquency and Economic Trend

F LUCTUATIONS in the number of cases brought into Juvenile Court from year to year are of interest to the general public as well as to professional workers in this field and are interpreted in various ways, the interpretation frequently depending upon the prejudices or purposes of the observer. Thus, a public official may call attention to a decrease in the incidence of delinquency as evidence of the efficiency of his administration. Advocates of a particular delinquency prevention program are apt to cite such statistics as proof of the benefit of their particular program. Similarly, the opponents of a particular official or of a particular preventive program are quick to quote rising delinquency figures in support of their contention. It happens that in many American communities there was a marked decline in the incidence of juvenile court cases between the years I929 and I934. As a result, in many cities individuals or agencies claimed credit for decreasing delinquency by virtue of this or that local policy or activity. Reports and publicity of this kind, moreover, frequently emphasized the thought that the decrease in delinquency was accomplished in spite of the increasing unemployment and economic distress of the depression. In other words, it was, and is today, generally taken for granted that juvenile delinquency increases in periods of depression and decreases in periods of prosperity. At the present time when there is so much discussion as to the effect of the war upon delinquency the interpretation of delinquency trends is strongly influenced by the popular belief that in times of increased employment and business activity a decrease in delinquency would ordinarily take place. So fixed is this opinion in the minds, not only of the general public, but of professional workers as well, that relatively little attention has been paid to the actual data of the past decade, and various attempts have been made to explain away data which point to a contrary conclusion. Yet, an understanding of the relationship between juvenile delinquency and economic trend is of great importance to Probation Officers and others concerned with the problem of delinquency, not only for purposes of administrative planning and because of its significance in attempts to evaluate various techniques and policies, but also because it throws a unique light upon certain causal factors which may not have been fully appreciated heretofore. Thus, whereas the deleterious effects of poverty and privation have been widely emphasized as causal factors, it has apparently not been sufficiently recognized that prosperity and economic expansion also involve certain factors that play an important role in the causation of delinquency.