COPING, DEFENDING, AND THE RELATIONS BETWEEN MORAL JUDGMENT AND MORAL BEHAVIOR IN PROSTITUTES AND OTHER FEMALE JUVENILE DELINQUENTS

• NCJ Number: 147440
• Journal: Journal of Abnormal Psychology Volume: 102 Issue: 1 Dated: (1993) Pages: 66-73
• Author(s): S E Bartek; D L Krebs; M C Taylor
• Date Published: 1993
• Length: 8 pages
• Grant Number(s): 410-87-1115; 410-91-0510
• Sponsoring Agency: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Issue Overview
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This article examines the relation between moral judgment and moral behavior.

Abstract

Twenty female juvenile delinquents who acknowledged engaging in prostitution, 20 juvenile delinquents who denied doing so, and 20 same-age control subjects responded to a Moral Judgment Interview (MJI), a moral dilemma about prostitution, and a test of coping and defending. Delinquents scored lower on moral maturity and coping and higher on defensiveness than nondelinquents. Post hoc analyses revealed that low-coping delinquents (but not high-coping delinquents or control subjects) made significantly lower level moral judgments on the prostitution dilemma than on the less personally relevant MJI dilemmas. Groups did not differ in their prescriptive judgments on the MJI, but prostitutes made weaker judgments against prostitution than the other delinquents. Prescriptive judgments were not related to moral maturity. The results elucidate the relation between moral judgment and moral behavior. Footnotes, references