Assimilation, Adaptation and Juvenile Delinquency Among Chinese Youths in New York Chinatown

• NCJ Number: 95571
• Author(s): C Sheu
• Date Published: 1983
• Length: 276 pages
• Sale Source: UMI Dissertation Services
• Publication Type: Thesis/Dissertation
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: State University of New York at Albany - doctoral dissertation

Annotation

A 1982 self-reported survey of 417 Chinese students enrolled in 3 junior and senior high schools in New York City's Chinatown suqgests that delinquency occurs among those Chinese youths alienated from American society and simultaneously unconditioned by traditional social controls.

Abstract

Factor analysis of delinquency items showed that delinquent behavior was more likely to be a versatile than a specialized phenomenon. Although boys committed more serious delinquent acts than girls, both were involved in similar delinquent patterns. The Chinese students had life organizations and personality structures synchronized with their assimilation into American culture. Although group pride or enthnocentrism persisted among Chinese students, they viewed Chinese people less favorably than they viewed Americans as they assimilated more into American culture. The Chinatown data were more consistent with control theory, which locates crime causes and delinquency in individual characteristics and social anomie. Chinese pupils with poor school performance who also deviated from American social norms were more likely to have weak attachments to Chinatown social agencies and thus were more vulnerable to delinquency. Delinquents in the Chinatown sample were more likely to experience personal failure and alienation from Chinese culture. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed. Tables, the survey instrument, additional data from the study, and approximately 135 references are supplied. (Author abstract modified)