Integrated Social Control Model and Ethnicity: The Case of Puerto Rican American Delinquency

• NCJ Number: 155837
• Journal: Criminal Justice and Behavior Volume: 18 Issue: 4 Dated: (December 1991) Pages: 464-479
• Author(s): O Rodriguez; D Weisburd
• Date Published: 1991
• Length: 16 pages
• Grant Number(s): 1RO1MH40387; 2PO1MH30569-A1
• Sponsoring Agency: US Dept of Health and Human Services; US Dept of Health and Human Services
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: NIJ Reprint Series

Annotation

This study uses data from a survey of inner-city Puerto Rican American teenagers to replicate D.S. Elliott et al's Integrated Social Control (ISC) model of delinquency by examining the extent to which Puerto Rican sociocultural factors alter the relationship between variables in the model.

Abstract

Data used in this analysis were obtained from 1,077 Puerto Rican adolescent males and 869 White adolescent males who participated in a longitudinal study. The measures used evaluated self-reported delinquency, involvement with delinquent peers, attitudes toward deviance, family and school normlessness, family and school involvement, and home and school strain. The results supported the applicability of the ISC model to the sample population. Peer involvement and prior delinquency were powerful predictors of Puerto Rican delinquency, but had a weaker effect than on the mainstream American sample. Family involvement also had a significant direct effect on delinquency, but family normlessness did not. 2 figures, 2 tables, 3 notes, and 25 references