NCJ Number
100635
Journal
Social Forces Volume: 63 Issue: 2 Dated: (December 1984) Pages: 393-413
Date Published
1984
Length
21 pages
Annotation
This research examines the relationships between the delinquency rates and demographic variables of urban Chicago neighborhoods over a 30-year period.
Abstract
Delinquency data were collected in Henry McKay's study and reflect the rates of male referrals to the Cook County Juvenile Court between 1940 and 1970 for each Chicago neighborhood. The analysis was confined to delinquency occurring in 1940, 1950, 1960, and 1970. The social compositions of the targeted communities are reflected in demographic indicators available in U.S. census materials from 1940 to 1970. Indicators are the percentages of nonwhites and foreign-born whites; percentage of male labor force unemployed; percentage of professional, technical, and kindred workers; percentage of owner-occupied dwellings; percentage of households with more than one person per room; and median education level. Investigation of temporal invariance used the confirmatory maximum likelihood-factor model developed by Joreskog. Although a basic pattern emerges for 1940, 1960, and 1970, the structure of the 1950 data is distinctive. The shift is related to changes in black residential patterns resulting from the open housing U.S. Supreme Court decisions of 1948. Tabular data and 43 references.