NCJ Number
215198
Journal
Criminal Justice and Behavior Volume: 33 Issue: 4 Dated: August 2006 Pages: 511-541
Date Published
August 2006
Length
31 pages
Annotation
This study examined the relationship between impulsivity and delinquency across levels of neighborhood disadvantage.
Abstract
Results indicate that whereas levels of impulsivity and deviance vary by level of neighborhood disadvantage, relationships between impulsivity and deviance do not. The results provide little support for social disorganization theory, especially concerning the importance of impulsivity in predicting delinquency. The study also provided little support for an alternate interpretation of social disorganization theory, namely that offending in disorganized neighborhoods could be explained by social disorganization itself without measuring the characteristics of the individual. In summary, the study provides strong evidence based on a nationally representative sample of more than 20,000 male and female adolescents supporting the invariance of the impulsivity-deviance relationship across varied levels of neighborhood ecologies. Based on the In-Home data collection of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), this study examined whether the impulsivity-delinquency relationship varied as a function of neighborhood context. Tables, appendix, notes and references