NCJ Number
75654
Date Published
1980
Length
553 pages
Annotation
This document describes the results of a comprehensive study of 4,146 young adult offenders committed in 1964 and 1965 to the California Youth Authority. The study was undertaken in an attempt to determine the relationship between a wide range of academic, vocational, intellectual, and personality variables and parole success or failure.
Abstract
The theoretical basis of the study is first discussed; classification and grounded theory are described in terms of the relationship of classification to theoretical explanation in criminology, classification strategies, models and competition among criminal classifications, and applied aspects of both classification and grounded theories. The methodology of the study is explained, as are the techniques used for data description and analysis. The subjects were given a wide range of academic assessment, vocational aptitude, intellectual assessment, and personality assessment tests. Data on over 200 variables were collected and organized within 8 categories: individual case history factors, intelligence factors, academic factors, vocational factors, personality factors, psychiatric and psychological factors, offense-related factors, and initial institutional programming. Results are given in the areas of intelligence, race, alcohol and drugs, violence, property offenses, and parole. Previous studies on parole prediction and delinquent behavior are cited, and the data are organized in data maps to describe the population from a variety of perspectives and to link parole outcome to most of the data presented. One finding of the study is that all incarcerated delinquents with a history of escape have a low parole success rate regardless of their intelligence level. Charts, graphs, and chapter references are given. For data maps and the data map manual, see NCJ 75653.