NCJ Number
134812
Journal
Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency Volume: 28 Issue: 4 Dated: (November 1991) Pages: 430-455
Date Published
1991
Length
26 pages
Annotation
The relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and delinquency was examined within the social context of schools using data from a Youth in Transition survey of 87 schools.
Abstract
The Youth in Transition data contain a variety of scales of different kinds of self-reported delinquency based on a 26-item checklist questionnaire. Three indexes were included: serious delinquency, trivial misbehavior (Rule breaking), and total delinquency. The schools were grouped into six categories: overall SES, heterogeneity, population stability, overall prevalence of delinquency, urbanness, and racial composition. The results showed that lower level students admitted more frequently to breaking the minor rules of school, such as tardiness, cheating on academic work, and truancy, than did higher status youths, but they did not admit to having committed more serious delinquency than higher status youths. Despite some scattered results of interest, which were contrary to conventional thought about SES and delinquency, this analysis did not identify an SES/delinquency relationship on any level of the six context characteristics examined. These results do not support the SES delinquency relationship based on relative deprivation theories. 6 tables, 2 notes, and 19 references