NCJ Number
102466
Date Published
1986
Length
142 pages
Annotation
This study analyzed juvenile delinquency among Chinese students within the framework of cultural assimilation.
Abstract
Self-report delinquency questionnaires were administered to 2,250 Chinese students enrolled in 3 public secondary schools located in or near 'American City Chinatown.' To obtain a representative sample, a disproportionate stratified sampling procedure was adopted to include 8th, 9th, and 10th grade Chinese students from three schools. The field contact with subjects, which began in May 1982, yielded an average return rate of 63 percent. Study findings indicate that students who were less successful in performing well under the criteria for acceptance in American culture committed more delinquency offenses. This suggests that delinquency is an attempt to establish an alternative identity when self-esteem is undermined by failure to comply with the dominant culture's measures of worth. Compliance with dominant cultural values is particularly difficult for recent immigrants conditioned by their own cultures. Delinquency prevention among recent Chinese immigrants could be served by maintaining the strength of homeland cultural values to impute the self-esteem needed until American cultural values can be gradually assimilated. Attempts to produce rapid compliance with American culture will increase a sense of failure and also cultivate hatred of either homeland or American values. Tabular data, 153 references, and a subject index.