NCJ Number
91048
Date Published
1983
Length
16 pages
Annotation
Since childrearing practices have a direct impact on the chance that a youth will engage in delinquent behavior, policy decisions regarding crime and delinquency should specifically consider their impact on the ability of parents to monitor, recognize, and punish the misbehavior of their children.
Abstract
The Oregon Social Learning Center has found that in order for parents to teach children not to act in a deviant manner, parents must monitor the child's behavior, recognize deviant behavior when it occurs, and punish such behavior. However, parents may not care for the child, may not have the time or energy to monitor the child's behavior, may not see anything wrong with the child's behavior, and may not have the inclination or means to punish the child. Thus, employment of adolescents may not be a means of preventing delinquency. In fact, delinquents are more likely than nondelinquents to be employed; to be well paid for their work; and to be engaging in sex, drugs, gambling, drinking, and job-quitting. In addition, children whose parents have criminal records, children in large families, and children in single-parent families are at greater risk of delinquency. However, children of working mothers are not at greater risk of delinquency if the quality of supervision provided by the mother is taken into account. While high school classes in childrearing seem like an effective aproach to improving parenting, experts in the field probably lack a consensus. We should therefore encourage research on good childrearing practices and the conditions favorable to them, without the expectation of immediate practical benefit.