Negative Social Sanctions and Juvenile Delinquency: Effects of Labeling in a Model of Deviant Behavior

• NCJ Number: 129339
• Journal: Social Science Quarterly Volume: 72 Issue: 1 Dated: (March 1991) P (98)-122
• Author(s): H B Kaplan; R J Johnson
• Date Published: 1991
• Length: 25 pages
• Grant Number(s): R01-DA-02497; R01-DA-04310; K05-DA-00136
• Sponsoring Agency: National Institute on Drug Abuse
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

The relationship between negative social sanctions in response to deviant behavior and continuity or escalation of deviant behavior is studied.

Abstract

The negative social sanctions model is a consequence of prior deviance, and has direct and indirect effects on later deviance. The model is estimated using the LISREL VI program for analysis of linear structural relationships among latent constructs in a 3-wave panel data set. The subject sample represents a 50-percent sample of junior high students in the 36 junior high schools of the Houston Independent School District in 1971. Results suggest that while negative social sanctions do not fully account for variation in deviant behavior, these social reactions to early deviance do exercise indirect and direct effects upon later performance of deviant behavior. After taking into account the mediating effects of Negative Social Sanctions in response to early deviance on later deviance, direct and other indirect effects of early deviance on later deviance continue to be observed. 2 tables, 3 figures, and 40 references (Author abstract modified)