NCJ Number
85492
Date Published
1982
Length
22 pages
Annotation
Using case material from a sample of 25 female juvenile delinquents, this study explores the explanatory power of four crime-causal theories -- social control, cultural deviance, psychodynamic, and strain.
Abstract
The 25 cases were taken from a larger sample of about 250 female delinquents participating in California's Community Treatment Project, an experimental program. The study sample was divided into five subgroups according to their development of interpersonal maturity (I-level). The subgroups were labeled conflicted/anxious, conflicted/acting-out, passive conformist, power-oriented, and cultural conformist. The division of the sample into these subgroups permitted the determination of whether any of the causal theories holds for subgroups of the offender population although it might not hold for the sample as a whole. The social control theory receives the most support for the total sample. According to social control theory, a person may become delinquent because the social environment does not provide effective external control, so that the person is inadequately socialized. In the case of subjects classified as cultural conformist, however, the cultural deviance theory appears more satisfactory than social control theory. The theory assumptions that fit particularly well are lower-class patterns, with a focus on the peer group as both the primary source of gratification and status and the path to learning techniques of delinquency. A serious distortion is introduced for only the subtype conflicted/anxious when the social control theory is used to explain delinquency across-the-board. Not only does psychodynamic theory fit this subtype better but the distortion is compounded by this subtype's occurring most frequently among the subgroups, representing almost half of the sample. Fourteen notes are listed.