Marianne Junger

An Empirical Test of a General Theory of Crime: A Four-Nation Comparative Study of Self-Control and the Prediction of Deviance

The current investigation examined the psychometric properties of Grasmick et al.s self-control measure and its relationship with deviance on large, representative adolescent samples ( N = 8,417) from Hungary, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and the United States. Important findings indicate that (1) the self-control measure is multidimensional; (2) the self-control measure is tenable for males, females, five different age groups (15-, 16-, 17-, 18-, and 19-year-olds), and adolescents from four different countries; (3) deviance as assessed by the Normative Deviance Scale (NDS) can be reliably measured in different countries; (4) self-control accounts for 10 to 16 percent of the total variance explained in different types of deviance and for 20 percent in total deviance; and (5) developmental processes involving self-control and deviance are largely invariant by national context. The investigation provides further support for the multidimensional self-control measure and its relationship with deviance independent of national context.

The inter-ethnic generalizability of social control theory: an empirical test

Social control theory is used to model the self-reported delinquency in a sample of 788 Surinamese, Moroccan, Turkish, and Dutch boys (all living in the Netherlands). Four hypotheses are tested: (a) social bonding variables predict variations in general delinquent involvement among Turkish, Surinamese, Moroccan, and Dutch male youths; (b) social bonding variables predict variations in a variety of types of delinquency involvement and deviance among Turkish, Moroccan, Surinamese, and Dutch male youths; (c) delinquent friends play the same role in the causation of general delinquency among Turkish, Moroccan, Surinamese, and Dutch male youths; and (d) the dimensions of the social bond are interrelated in the same way among all four ethnic groups. The multivariate analyses support the key propositions. The variables most consistently related to delinquency among the four samples are beliefs in conventional values, virtual (family) supervision, (school) conflict, and participation in unconventional leisure activities.

Self-control, accidents, and crime

According to self-control theory, crime and accident involvement are positively related. Gottfredson and Hirschi (1990) argued that this relation is spurious and results from the fact that both accidents and crime are the result of a lack of self-control. In particular, they argued that a positive relation is supportive of their theory and cannot be explained by competing theories, such as strain or cultural deviance theory. This study explored two questions: (a) Is there a relation between crime and accidents? (b) Is there support for the spuriousness thesis, that is, can the relation between crime and accident involvement be accounted for by a measure of self-control or by a measure of social control? The answer to both questions was largely affirmative. There was a relatively strong positive relation between crime and accidents, with delinquents more involved than nondelinquents in accidents. The analysis also showed that, although measures of self-control and social control were related to delinquency and to accident involvement, the relation between crime and accidents became weaker when these measures were taken into account, but it did not disappear. Thus, the spuriousness thesis was partially supported.

Crime and Risky Behavior in Traffic: An Example of Cross-Situational Consistency

This study looks at the relationship between risky behavior in traffic and criminal behavior. Analyses were based on a random sample of 1531 persons involved in traffic accidents. The data came from two independent police databases: the accident registration system and a national database on offending. Descriptions of the accidents by the police were used to identify individuals who had displayed risky traffic behavior contributing to or causing an accident; evidence of offending was based on a register of contacts with police. This methodology meant that there was no self-selection bias or self-report bias as may occur in survey data. Exposure to traffic accident risk was controlled for. Log-linear analyses, controlling for gender and age, revealed that persons who displayed risky traffic behavior leading to the accident had an odds ratio of 2.6 for having a police record for violent crime; of 2.5 for vandalism, 1.5 for property crime, and 5.3 for having been involved in traffic crime. The results were consistent with the idea of a common factor underlying risky behavior in traffic and criminal behavior. This underlying trait may represent a general disregard for the long term adverse consequences of ones actions and could be labeled risk-taking, impulsiveness, or lack of self-control.

Routine Activities and Deviant Behaviors: American, Dutch, Hungarian, and Swiss Youth

The current investigation examined cross-national similarities and differences in routine activities, measures of deviance, and their relationship in representative samples of 7,000 adolescents aged 1519 years (mean age: 17.5 years) from Hungary, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and the United States. For the majority of youth, most of their time was spent in solitary activities, followed by peer activities, community/sports activities, and family activities; Hungarian youth reported spending a much greater amount of time with the family than adolescents from other countries, while Dutch youth spent far more time in solitary activities than their peers. Rates of total deviance were remarkably similar for American, Dutch, and Swiss youth; Hungarian youth reported substantially lower rates than all other adolescents. Finally, findings indicated that routine activities accounted for 18% for males and 16% for females of the variance explained in total deviance. Furthermore, with the exceptions of alcohol and drug use, country had very little or no explanatory power in deviance. The current study suggests that the utility and the explanatory power of the routine activities framework replicates across national boundaries.

Parenting During Toddlerhood: Contributions of Parental, Contextual, and Child Characteristics

The present study examines the contribution of parental, contextual, and child characteristics to parenting behavior during toddlerhood in 111 two-parent families with a 17-month-old son (M = 16.9 months, SD = 0.57). Parenting was conceptualized in terms of five dimensions: support, structure, positive discipline, psychological control, and physical punishment. In general, results indicate that the effects of parental, contextual, and child characteristics on parenting dimensions do not differ for mothers and fathers. The only uncovered difference concerns the effect of childrens inhibitory control, which was significant for maternal but not for paternal support. For both mothers and fathers, support, structure, and the use of psychological control are mainly influenced by parental characteristics, whereas the use of positive discipline and physical punishment are best predicted by contextual characteristics. Overall, the contribution of child characteristics to parenting dimensions was moderate.

Trends in violent crime: A comparison between police statistics and victimization surveys

Usually, two measures are used to describetrends in violent crime: police statistics andvictimization surveys. Both are available inthe Netherlands. In this contribution, we willfirst provide a description of the trends inviolent crime. It appears that both types ofstatistics reflect a different trend in thedevelopment of violence over the past twodecades. According to police statistics,violent crime has increased considerably,whilst the victimization surveys show thatviolent crime has not undergone any increase.In the second part of the paper, a number ofhypotheses are considered which could explainthe discrepancies between violence asregistered by the police and violence shown invictimization surveys. Methodological problemsinvolving both data sources are also discussed.In summary, we suggest that the increase inviolent crime as shown by police statistics isin part due to more professional registrationbased on an increased willingness to reportcrimes, and increased computerization, whichfacilitates registration. We suggest thatalthough violence may have increased, thisincrease is not likely to be as high assuggested by police statistics.

Cognitive ability and self-control in relation to dietary habits, physical activity and bodyweight in adolescents.

BackgroundPrevious studies showed that cognitive ability is related to health and mortality. The cause of this relationship remains largely unknown. One plausible explanation is that cognitive ability is related to behaviours that affect health. This study investigates whether cognitive ability is related to healthy dietary habits, physical activity and appropriate bodyweight in adolescents and examines whether self-control mediates the relationship between cognitive ability and health behaviour.MethodsIn total 201 high-school students aged between 15 and 20 participated in the study. They completed three cognitive tests, measuring cognitive ability, reaction time and memory span, and completed a questionnaire on self-control, dietary habits, physical activity and bodyweight.ResultsResults show that adolescents scoring high on the cognitive ability test have healthier dietary habits and engage more often in physical activity. Adolescents with high self-control have a healthier eating pattern, are more often physically active and have lower BMIs. Both reaction time and memory span were not related to dietary habits and physical activity. Self-control was not related to cognitive ability and could not, therefore, mediate the relationship between cognitive ability and health in this study.ConclusionIn conclusion, the link between cognitive ability and health behaviour could explain - in part - the relationship between cognitive ability and health. Self-control cannot explain this link.

Delinquency, health behaviour and health.

OBJECTIVES This study investigated the association between delinquency and health in a sample of adolescents and young adults (aged 13-24) and examined whether the association could have been due to delinquency-related differences in demographic, socio-economic and life-style factors. METHOD The study is based on cross-sectional data from a sample of 3677 adolescents and young adults interviewed as part of a survey of Dutch households. Health, health behaviour, and delinquency were assessed through self-report measures. RESULTS Delinquency was significantly related to three of the four measures of health behaviour (smoking, alcohol consumption, and drug use), even after control for demographic and socio-economic factors. Delinquency was also significantly associated with all three measures of health assessed in this study (somatic symptoms, general health, and chronic conditions). However, only minimal support was found for the hypothesis that the association between delinquency and health was mediated by differences in health behaviour or demographic/socio-economic differences. CONCLUSIONS Adolescent delinquents are less healthy than non-delinquents. Potential causes for this relationship are proposed. Possibly, personality factors, such as hostility, or psychosocial stress might explain why delinquency correlates with health.

A short-term longitudinal study of the development of self-reported patenting during toddlerhood

Objective: This study examined four types of stability (factorial equivalence over time, mean-level stability, rank-order stability, and individual-level stability) in five facets of parenting (support, structure, positive discipline, psychological control, and physical punishment) during toddlerhood for both mothers and fathers. Design: Mothers and fathers from 108 intact Dutch families with a son reported about their parenting behavior in three measurement waves when the child was 17, 23, and 29 months of age. Results: Confirmatory factor analyses showed that all five parenting facets measured as invariant over time and across mothers and fathers (factorial equivalence). Support, structure, and physical punishment displayed high mean-level stability and rank-order stability. Although the mean levels of positive discipline and psychological control increased, these parenting facets showed high levels of rank-order stability. Mothers and fathers reported similar levels of parenting behavior and similar patterns of change. Person oriented analyses showed there are differences in individual patterns of change in parenting. Conclusions: Measures of parenting were factorially equivalent, supporting the notions that the content of parenting facets does not change across time and that similar constructs were measured for mothers and fathers. At the group level, high levels of mean-level stability and rank-order stability suggest that self-reported parenting is quite stable during the toddler period. However, findings at the individual level show that some parents report changes in parenting. Examination of the characteristics that might account for these changes is an important next step in future parenting research.