Margaret Farnworth

Testing Interactional Theory: An Examination of Reciprocal Causal Relationships Among Family, School, and Delinquency

Attachment to parents and commitment to school are important buffers against delinquency. Adolescents who are emotionally bonded to their parents and who succeed at school are unlikely candidates for serious delinquency. These relationships have strong empirical support. In addition, however, it is possible that frequent involvement in delinquency can cause a substantial deterioration in the emotional bond between parent and child and in the adolescents commitment to school. Indeed, an interactional perspective argues that bidirectional or reciprocal causal influences such as these are more accurate representations of how delinquency develops over the life-course. The present paper tests an interactional model for these variables using the first three waves of data from the Rochester Youth Development Study. Results strongly suggest that the causes of delinquency are more complex than originally thought. While weakened bonds to family and school do cause delinquency, delinquent behavior further attenuates the strength of the bonds to family and school, thereby establishing a behavioral trajectory towards increasing delinquency.

Measurement in the Study of Class and Delinquency: Integrating Theory and Research

Correlational studies of the relationship between social class and crime have tended to operationalize these concepts in a theoretical vacuum rather than developing measures that are consistent with major theories in criminology. This article explores the possibility that inadequate measurement may explain past findings indicating no relationship between class and delinquency. To do this we measure class and delinquency in two ways. The first is consistent with the prior empirical literature on this topic and includes measure of class based on a status attainment model and an omnibus measure of delinquency. The second way, more consistent with theories of delinquency, measures class using indicators of sustained underclass status and delinquency as repeated involvement in more serious street crimes. The findings support our hypotheses. Relationships are weak when status attainment measures of class and omnibus measures of delinquency are used. In contrast, the strongest and most consistent class-crime associations are found between measures of continuing underclass status and sustained involvement in street crimes.

SOCIAL CORRELATES OF CRIMINAL INVOLVEMENT: FURTHER EVIDENCE ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SOCIAL STATUS AND CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR*

Recent studies have suggested that the relationship between social status and criminality is weak to nonexistent. They have also suggested that if status effects are present, they are observable only when crime is measured officially and not when it is measured through self-report techniques. In this paper we examine the adequacy of past measures of both status and criminality and reassess the relationship between these concepts when each is measured in a more extensive manner than has been customary in past research. The analysis suggests that the relationship between status and juvenile delinquency is indeed weak but that the relationship between status and adult criminality is strong and inverse. Moreover, the social status of the subject appears to be far more important in accounting for criminal behavior than is the status of the family of origin. Finally, when self-reported and official criminality are measured in parallel fashion, the results appear to be concordant rather than discordant.

The effects of occupation and education on punitive orientations among juvenile justice personnel

The objective of this present research was to examine the interrelationships between occupational role and education experiences with support for punitive attitudes among juvenile justice personnel. Multivariate analyses revealed that probation officers were less likely than correctional officers and teachers who worked in correctional facilities to indicate support for punitive responses to delinquent behavior. Increases in education reduced adherence to punishment orientations. Contrary to expectations, educational background did not mediate the effect of occupational role on support for punitiveness. Implications and recommendations for future research are discussed.

Male-Female Differences in Delinquency in a Minority-Group Sample

This study employs multiple regression analysis with self-report data to assess two current theses concerning sex differences in delinquency: first, that the same etiological model serves to explain delinquency for males and females; and second, that sex affects delinquency in an indirect fashion through its prior influence on social relationships within the family and the school. These questions are addressed in an analysis estimating the additive and interactive effects of sex on each of four types of delinquency in a sample of black fifteen-year-olds from low-income families. Findings indicate that the significance of the sex effect and the manner in which sex operates to affect delinquency depend upon the type of delinquent outcome under investigation. The discussion focuses on the theoretical and research implications of these findings.

Mail vs. telephone surveys of criminal justice attitudes: A comparative analysis

This study compares results from surveys using two modes of administration. A subset of questions from the 1992Texas Crime Poll, a statewide poll conducted annually by mail, was replicated in telephone interviews using the Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing System. The phone survey yielded better participation rates but less complete responses to individual attitude questions than did the mail poll. As expected, the mail survey was less expensive but less efficient than the automated phone survey. The central finding was that all but one of the responses to five attitude questions difered significantly across the surveys. The samples differed in their demographic composition, but this did not explain differences in the substantive findings from the mail and phone surveys. The discussion considers alternative explanations for differences in the findings from the two surveys and suggests direction for further comparative research.

Felony court processing in an urban county: Coping with a “limited capacity to punish”

The findings from earlier research suggest that courts adapt to prison overcrowding through the increased use of charge reductions and felony probation. Analyses with data aggregated from an urban county district court in Texas for each year from 1978 to 1988 did not support those earlier findings. During a period of unprecedented prison and court overloads, charge reductions and the probability of probation decreased, and sentences to state prisons increased. Average prison terms, however, decreased in length. The discussion in this article considers the implications of these findings for strict enforcement attempts and deterrence goals, in the context of what Pontell (1984) has called “a limited capacity to punish.”