City Life and Delinquency -- Victimization, Fear of Crime and Gang Membership

• NCJ Number: 148543
• Author(s): L D Savitz; M Lalli; L Rosen
• Date Published: 1977
• Length: 69 pages
• Grant Number(s): NI-71-140-G; NI-71-160-G; N-70-027; 73-NI-99-0009-G
• Sponsoring Agency: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP); US Securities and Exchange Cmssn
• Sale Source: Eric Document Reproduction Service
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Over 500 black and 500 white boys born in 1957 and attending Philadelphia schools were interviewed, along with their mothers, to determine how educational aspirations, social values, quality of life, fear of crime, victimization, family structure, father-son interaction, social attachments, and gang affiliation affected the development of delinquent behavior.

Abstract

Findings indicated that mothers and sons who limited or lowered their educational goals to high school included youth with much higher delinquency rates than those with higher aspirations. Social class, however, accounted for more differences in delinquency rates than educational aspirations. A high proportion of all subjects expressed fear of many places. Family size and father-son interaction were more important in determining delinquency rates for blacks than for whites. Black youth with the lowest delinquency rates came from families reporting a high quality of neighborhood life. Typical victimizations involved attempted robbery, assault, threat of injury, and burglary. No significant relationships, however, were found between victimization and delinquency, and juveniles from lower income black groups were no more victimized than juveniles from higher income groups. The dangerousness of the immediate area in which families lived was differentially perceived by juveniles and adults. What particularly frightened black parents was the possibility of their children being injured or robbed at school or in the neighborhood. A significant number of adults bought weapons for protection and kept loaded guns in the house. By age 15, 14 percent of blacks and 14 percent of whites had official delinquency records. Structural gang members generally had heightened fear of the local area and specific social settings and were more victimized and prone to acquire a delinquency record than nonstructural gang members. The data on education and the family are in greater accord with social control theory than with strain theory, although some subgroups have been identified for which strain theory may be the better explanation for high delinquency rates. 49 tables and 3 figures