NCJ Number
225255
Journal
Journal of Criminal Justice Volume: 36 Issue: 6 Dated: November/December 2008 Pages: 486-493
Date Published
November 2008
Length
8 pages
Annotation
This study investigated whether the relationship between strain and delinquency was moderated by religiosity.
Abstract
The findings suggest that the measure of strain, particularly exposure to violence, had a direct effect on delinquency, though there were few moderating effects from the conditioning variables. Regarding direct effects of strain on delinquency, the effects of exposure to violence on both measures of delinquency were meaningful and in line with the idea that experiencing such stressful events could have a negative impact that might lead to multiple types of offending. The effects of school problems on delinquency were significant for both violent and property offending. The direct effects of conditioning variables for both offending models were either non significant or trivially significant. There was little evidence to suggest any of the conditioning variables moderated the relationship between strain and delinquency. The results failed to show that religiosity buffered the effects of either strain measure on property or violent offending. Results were similar for interactions using social support, self-esteem, and depression as moderating variables. Finally, males were more likely than females to participate in violent offending, and to a lesser extent, property offending. Gender differences in religiosity, and social support and self-esteem were small. Data were collected from 4,834 American adolescents from 132 randomly selected schools who were surveyed in 1995 and 1996; results were part of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health public use dataset. Tables, figures, notes, and references