NCJ Number
84967
Date Published
1981
Length
38 pages
Annotation
Current evidence points toward some kind of systematic patterning in juvenile delinquency, whether specialized or generalized. Results of a factor analysis of official arrest records for nearly 29,000 male members of a Danish birth cohort support the generalized delinquency hypothesis.
Abstract
The generalized delinquency hypothesis predicts that the first factor extracted after factor analysis should be by far the largest and should be a general delinquency factor. Research supporting this theory has exhibited methodological difficulties. This study found four factors in delinquent behavior in the sample: general crime, traffic-related offenses, white-collar crime, and sex offenses. Since the first factor was by far the largest and the three remaining factors were weak, results support generalized delinquency. The patterns cross-validate well and do not seem to be an artifact of item frequency. However, they account for a small proportion of the variance in arrest items, showing many crimes to be independent of any pattern. References notes, study results, and 21 references are appended.