Adolescents as a Source of Social Control: The Utility of Adolescent Social Capital for Reducing Violent Delinquency

• NCJ Number: 236695
• Journal: Sociological Spectrum Volume: 31 Issue: 5 Dated: September-October 2011 Pages: 554-578
• Author(s): Harald E. Weiss
• Date Published: October 2011
• Length: 25 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study examined parental social capital as an important social control component of adolescent delinquency.

Abstract

Parental social capital has emerged as an important social control component of adolescent delinquency. However, for severe forms of delinquency, such as violence, adolescent social capital is as likely a source of social control as adult social capital. This study uses the first two waves of the Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health to show that parental social capital has little effect on violence once parental and family characteristics are controlled. However, both neighborhood and school adolescent social capital reduce adolescents' violent behavior in spite of strong controls of peer fighting, prior violent offending, and neighborhood-level variables. (Published Abstract)