Variance In Delinquency Research Articles

The Influence of Future Certainty and Contextual Factors on Delinquent Behavior and School Adjustment Among African American Adolescents

This study examined the ability of future certainty—an individual's perception of future stability, operationalized as the likelihood of certain life outcomes–to explain variance in delinquency and school adjustment, while controlling for economic, neighborhood, and family factors, among a cross-sectional sample of 1422 male and 1562 female African American adolescents drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). Three kinds of future certainty were examined: future life certainty (e.g., life expectancy), marriage certainty, and college certainty. In hierarchical multiple regression analyses, future certainty and family functioning were stronger predictors than economic and neighborhood variables: neighborhood disorganization and family socioeconomic status. Future life certainty and expectations of attending college were stronger predictors of delinquency among males than females. Marriage certainty was the weakest predictor of the three certainty variables.

The Robustness of Self-Control in Relation to Form of Delinquency

This study of a statewide, stratified random sample of 3,335 public high school students is designed to examine the robustness of self-control in predicting alcohol consumption, other drug use, crimes against persons, and property offenses. Comparisons in prediction of these forms of delinquency are made between two measures of self-control, social characteristics, and elements of other theories. An examination also is made of whether self-control accounts for commensurate amounts of variance within categories of social characteristics. A behavioral measure of self-control generally is a stronger predictor of delinquency than a cognitive measure. Inconsistent findings are observed in analyses of whether self-control accounts for commensurate variation in delinquency between and within categories of these social characteristics. Both measures are significant predictors of delinquency when they are simultaneously analyzed with many factors extrapolated from other theories. Implications of the findings are discussed in terms of future theory and research.

Juvenile Delinquency and Gender

This article considers differences in patterns of youth delinquency and problem behaviour between boys and girls. It uses cross-sectional surveys of self-reported youth offending in 11 European countries, and a similar survey covering various ethnic groups in Rotterdam, both carried out in 1992. These surveys show that there remains a substantial gap in the level of delinquency between girls and boys across all countries and ethnic groups. The findings confirm that weak social controls by family and school are an important correlate of delinquency for males and females in all country clusters and across all ethnic groups. On the whole, the correlates of delinquency are found to be similar in males and females, which suggests that there is no need for a different theory to explain delinquency in boys and girls. Social control explains part of the gap in delinquency between boys and girls, simply because social controls of girls tend to be stronger and tighter. Culturally determined differences in the strength of family-based social controls can also explain some of the variation in delinquency between ethnic groups.

Eysenck's theory of crime revisited: Factors or primary scales?

Purpose. This study aims to advance the original formulation of Eysenck's theory of criminality from the factorial level to suggest that primary scales of personality best determine reports of delinquency.Method. Two self‐report studies were conducted. The first consisted of 101 students and the second used an additional 101 students. The first study used measures of Self‐Reported Delinquency (SRD) and Socialisation (Gough & Peterson, 1952) and the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire Revised Edition (EPQ‐R; H.J. Eysenck & Eysenck, 1991). The second study complemented the first study to utilize the EPQ‐R and SRD only.Results. A series of exploratory hierarchical multiple entry regressions of the factors in the first study demonstrate that high Psychoticism predicts SRD, whereas high Psychoticism and Neuroticism predict Under‐socialization. The primary scales of Disrespect for Rules, Depressed and Need for Stimulation significantly predict both criteria. The second study extends the first study through structural equation modelling to provide acceptable evidence of the concurrent validity of these primary scales with SRD.Conclusions. We propose that the significant primary scales of personality provide a clear reformulation of Eysenck's original theory of criminality as they explain the variance in delinquency and socialization in a systematic manner. Furthermore, primary scales provide a theoretical framework for behavioural interventions, as required by Blackburn (2000).

Reconciling psychopathy and low self-control*

Although both reflect a self-centered, antisocial personality, psychopathy and low self-control have seldom been examined together. This study created scales reflecting both common and unique elements of both constructs, investigated their factor structure, and explained variance in delinquency. Four alternative hypotheses were tested: that low self-control and psychopathy constitute a single construct, that they constitute primary and secondary psychopathy or interpersonal and intrapersonal traits, or that they constitute Antisociality—the tendency to perform antisocial acts—and (low) Self-Direction—the tendency to act in one's long-term beneft. Models containing Antisociality and Self-Direction fit better than alternatives and accounted for substantial variance in offending.

A Classification of High-Risk Youths

The authors report the results of developing and evaluating a classification of 315 arrested youths processed at the Hillsborough County Juvenile Assessment Center in Tampa, Florida. Cluster analysis of summary measures of nine baseline alcohol/other drug use and self-reported delinquency variables identified four groups of youths: (a) low-level delinquents and drug users, (b) high-level delinquents, (c) hair-test-identified marijuana and cocaine users, and (d) self-reported drug users. The validity of the typology was assessed by comparing the clusters of youths on their(a) educational experiences; (b) delinquency referral history; (c) neglect, abuse, and family problem history; (d) close friends’ problem behavior; and, of particular interest, given the focus of the analyses, (e) emotional/psychological functioning and mental health and substance abuse treatment history. The findings indicate the youths were experiencing overlapping delinquency, alcohol/other drug use, and emotional/psychological problems. The cooccurrence of these problems among youths entering the juvenile justice system extends findings of their co-occurrence reported in studies of incarcerated youths.

Adolescents carrying handguns and taking them to school: psychosocial correlates among public school students in Illinois

The current study sought to examine psychosocial correlates of adolescents carrying a handgun and taking a handgun to school. Survey participants were approximately 22,000 6th, 8th, and 10th grade public school students from throughout Illinois. Results showed that the strongest correlates of handgun carrying behaviours were variables directly associated with handguns and violence, both behaviours and beliefs, as well as delinquency variables. These findings have many implications for intervention by parents, schools, and policy makers to reduce the incidence of adolescent handgun carrying and taking a handgun to school. Copyright 2002 The Association for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Sex Differences, Assortative Mating, and Cultural Transmission Effects on Adolescent Delinquency: A Twin Family Study

The twin study literature contains inconsistencies regarding both the estimates of genetic, shared, and nonshared environmental influence on delinquency and sex differences in the etiological influences on delinquency. Additionally, little is known about assortative mating and cultural transmission effects on delinquency. The present study was aimed at examining the etiology of delinquency in adolescence and examining assortative mating and transmission effects. To this end, we applied the social homogamy structural equation model to self-reported delinquency data from 486 families with 17-year-old male and female twins. We expected stronger shared environmental influences on delinquency among girls than boys and stronger environmental than genetic effects on adolescent delinquency in general. The results indicated nonsignificant sex differences in the estimates of genetic and environmental influences on delinquency. The best-fitting model suggested that 18 %, 56 %, and 26% of the variance in delinquency among both boys and girls is associated with additive genetic, nonshared environmental, and shared environmental factors, respectively. This finding was consistent with our expectation that environmental factors play an important role in adolescent delinquency. Parental cultural effects accounted for a small part of the transmission of delinquency within families while assortative mating was, in part, accounted for by cultural and social background factors. Future work should focus on identifying important environmental factors related to delinquency.

Sex Differences, Assortative Mating, and Cultural Transmission Effects on Adolescent Delinquency: A Twin Family Study

The twin study literature contains inconsistencies regarding both the estimates of genetic, shared, and nonshared environmental influence on delinquency and sex differences in the etiological influences on delinquency. Additionally, little is known about assortative mating and cultural transmission effects on delinquency. The present study was aimed at examining the etiology of delinquency in adolescence and examining assortative mating and transmission effects. To this end, we applied the social homogamy structural equation model to self-reported delinquency data from 486 families with 17-year-old male and female twins. We expected stronger shared environmental influences on delinquency among girls than boys and stronger environmental than genetic effects on adolescent delinquency in general. The results indicated nonsignificant sex differences in the estimates of genetic and environmental influences on delinquency. The best-fitting model suggested that 18%, 56%, and 26% of the variance in delinquency among both boys and girls is associated with additive genetic, nonshared environmental, and shared environmental factors, respectively. This finding was consistent with our expectation that environmental factors play an important role in adolescent delinquency. Parental cultural effects accounted for a small part of the transmission of delinquency within families while assortative mating was, in part, accounted for by cultural and social background factors. Future work should focus on identifying important environmental factors related to delinquency.

RE: LD and Delinquency: Rethinking the "Link"

Longitudinal data from a 7-year prospective study was examined to investigate whether the presence of learning disabilities (LD) increases a youth's risk of becoming a juvenile delinquent. The sample included 515 students enrolled in the fifth grade in the fall of 1985, 51 (9.9%) of whom were youth with LD. Self-report data on delinquent activity were collected in the spring of 1993. Official court records were obtained for the years 1985 through 1992. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were performed using a block of three demographic variables (gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status) as predictors in the first step and including LD status in a second step. Seven separate analyses were performed, using different measures of delinquency as criterion variables. In no case did LD status account for a significant portion of unique variance in the delinquency variables when the demographic variables were controlled for. The results of this study did not confirm the presence of a direct relationship between LD and delinquency and suggest that the finding of a direct relationship in other studies may have been due to confounding of the LD status with age, ethnicity, or socioeconomic status.

LD and Delinquency

Longitudinal data from a 7-year prospective study was examined to investigate whether the presence of learning disabilities (LD) increases a youth's risk of becoming a juvenile delinquent. The sample included 515 students enrolled in the fifth grade in the fall of 1985, 51 (9.9%) of whom were youth with LD. Self-report data on delinquent activity were collected in the spring of 1993. Official court records were obtained for the vears 1985 through 1992. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were performed using a block of three demographic variables (gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status) as predictors in the first step and including LD status in a second step. Seven separate analyses were performed, using different measures of delinquency as criterion variables. In no case did LD status account for a significant portion of unique variance in the delinquency variables when the demographic variables were controlled for. The results of this study did not confirm the presence of a direct relationship between LD and delinquency and suggest that the finding of a direct relationship in other studies may have been due to confounding of the LD status with age, ethnicity, or socioeconomic status.

Adolescent Apprentices in Germany

Guided by Hamilton's discussion on apprenticeships and adolescent delinquency, the goals of the present exploratory study were twofold: (a) to document variation in delinquency (attitudes and behavior), attachment to adults, optimism about occupational future, and disposition toward aggressiveness among a group (N = 43) of German apprentices; and (b) to examine the relations among attachment to adults, optimism about occupational future, and delinquency-endorsing attitudes. Questionnaire and interview data revealed considerable variation across allfour variables. As hypothe-sized, attachment to adults predicted attitudes toward delinquency; notably, this was over and above the effects of aggression. Apprentices who reported higher levels of attachment to adults were also more optimistic regarding their occupational future. Level of aggression moderated the association between attachment to adults and attitudes toward delinquency; specifically, reports of relatively high attachment to adults were associated with low levels of delinquency-endorsing attitudes but only among the low-aggression apprentices. The implications of thesefindings are discussed.

SCHOOL BONDING, RACE, AND DELINQUENCY*

While there is considerable evidence that blacks experience school in qualitatively distinct ways from whites, there has been a general failure to examine racial variation in the impact of school variables on juvenile misconduct. The purpose of this research is to describe the manner in which school bonding affects delinquent conduct, focusing in particular on the role of the school in the delinquent involvement of black youths. Our orientation is primarily a control theory one that suggests that the greater the degree of school bonding the lesser the likelihood of involvement in delinquent activities. Our review of the literature leads us to expect differential levels of bonding by race and across varying racial environments of schools, with resulting differential effects on delinquency. On the basis of a neighborhood sample of 942 adolescents, we identijj seven distinct dimensions of school bonding. The analysis reveals that blacks are at least as strongly bonded to the school as whites, that our model explains comparable amounts of variance in delinquency across race‐sex subgroups, and that the racial composition of the school is generally unimportant in conditioning the effect of school bonding on delinquency. While our findings are generally supportive of control theory, a model that purports to be invariant across race, gender, and socioeconomic boundaries, we caution that such a conclusion may be both premature and mistaken. We discuss the implications of these findings and suggest that they be interpreted within a framework that also considers family and peer bonding.

TOWARD AN INTERACTIONAL THEORY OF DELINQUENCY*

Contemporary theories of delinquency are seen as limited in three respects: they tend to rely on unidirectional causal structures that represent delinquency in a static rather than dynamic fashion, they do not examine developmental progressions, and they do not adequately link processual concepts to the person's position in the social structure. The present article develops an interactional theory of delinquency that addresses each of these issues. It views delinquency as resulting from the freedom afforded by the weakening of the person's bonds to conventional society and from an interactional setting in which delinquent behavior is learned and reinforced. Moreover, the control, learning, and delinquency variables are seen as reciprocalIy interrelated, mutually affecting one another over the person's life. Thus, delinquency is viewed as part of a larger causal network, affected by social factors but also affecting the development of those social factors over time.

Television and Delinquency

Television and Delinquency

An empirical test of Hirschi's control theory of delinquency

Hirschi's control theory of delinquency (1969) contends that lack of attachment to peers, parents, and school leads to a lack of conventional attitudes, which ultimately leads to juvenile delinquency. In order to test this theory, data were collected from questionnaires administered to 724 students in four high schools and three juvenile correctional institutions in the Southwest. Findings from this study indicate that when subjected to path analysis, Hirschi's contention is only supported when delinquent companions is included; that is to say the extent of explained variation in delinquency is greatly enhanced when delinquent companions is introduced as an additional antecedent variable in Hirschi's causal scheme. In addition, the findings are more consistent with a social learning or differential association theory than the original theory proposed by Hirschi in Causes of Delinquency (1969).

Siblings and Delinquent Behavior: An Exploratory Study of a Neglected Family Variable

ABSTRACTThis exploratory article examines the relation between sibling structure (sex of siblings and birth order) and self‐reported delinquency. The processes of contrast and imitation, conceptual notions derived from research on sibling structure and sex roles, are used to guide this exploration. Considerable variation in delinquency by sibling status was identified. There are indications that an interaction effect exists between birth order and sex of siblings relative to rates of delinquency.

Containment Theory Reevaluated: An Empirical Explication

All seven variables of Containment theory were operationalized in order to examine which combination of them related best to self-reported delinquency and to official involvement with the law. The data, from questionnaires administered in four high schools and three correctional institutions in Oklahoma, revealed stronger relationships with self-reported delinquency than with official involvementfor both males and females. While internalization of rules accounted for the most variation in delinquency among high school students, frustration tolerance was most related to delinquency among institutionalized students. Self-perception, the containment variable receiving the most attention in the past, was much less related to delinquency than were the other containment variables.

An examination of types of delinquency through path analysis

Relationships between father's occupation, delinquent peer association, tendency to neutralize, and self-reported delinquency are explored in a path model. Self-reported delinquency are categorized into Minor, Predatory, and Aggressive delinquency. The effect of this division is analyzed among Mexican Americans and Anglo college students (N=694). The structure of the resulting path models remained similar across these subsamples, although there was some variation in the strength of the relationships. The effect of father's occupation was minimal. The strongest relationships were between neutralization and delinquency, controlling for delinquent peers and for father's occupation, which decreased as the seriousness of the delinquency increased. Additionally, neutralization was more strongly related to delinquency among Anglos than among Mexican Americans, explaining 39% of the variation in delinquency among Anglos, but only 28% among Mexican Americans. Association with delinquent peers, however, was more strongly related to delinquency among Mexican Americans.

EVALUATING TWO MODELS OF DELINQUENCY CAUSATION Structural Theory and Control Theory

Abstract Research on delinquency involvement has often employed structural or control theories to account for such behavior. Structural models typically have been applied to lower‐class delinquency, control models to explanotions of middle‐class juvenile miscanduct. Much of the inconclusiveness and many of the controdictions in the delinquency literature are arguably the result of this focus on either lower‐class or middle‐class adolescents employing a single conceptual orientation. Such a restrictive focus has produced narrow, class‐specific explanotions of delinquency involvement which obscure probable similarities in etiological processes at varying socioeconomic locations in the society. The intent of this research is to test the predictive utility of central aspects of bath the structural and control models across a wide range of social status positions. Self‐report data obtained from o representative sample of 412 male high school students in a mid‐western SMSA indicate that (1) bath structural and control theory serve to explain significant. though small. proportions of the variance in delinquency; (2) the control model variables account for the mast unique variation in delinquency involvement; and (3) the combined effects of the two models account for more variance than either of the models taken separately.