Investigating the Interrelations Among Social Control Variables and Conformity; Changing Attitudes Toward Capital Punishment; Schools and Delinquency

• NCJ Number: 72116
• Author(s): J H Rankin
• Date Published: 1978
• Length: 118 pages
• Grant Number(s): MH13327-02
• Sponsoring Agency: US Dept of Health, Education, and Welfare
• Sale Source: UMI Dissertation Services
• Publication Type: Thesis/Dissertation
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: University of Arizona - doctoral dissertation

Annotation

This document contains studies on three topics: relationships among conformity and social control variables in adolescents, changing attitudes toward capital punishment, and schools and delinquency.

Abstract

The relationships between conforming behavior and four social control variables (conventional activities, attachment to school, attitude towards law, and delinquent friends) were studied using self-reported interviews with 385 students in Wayne County, Mich. Results indicated that the association between measures of inner containment and conforming behavior often vanishes when controlling for the number of delinquent companions. Data on violent crime rates and surveys conducted by the National Opinion Research Center showed a strong, positive, nonlinear relationship between public support for capital punishment and crime rates across regions of the U.S. Results indicated that general and increasing concern about crime, rather than personality characteristics and personal victimizations, produced a hardening of attitudes toward criminals and a greater demand for harsh penalties. In the third study, relations between certain school variables and delinquency were specified, using data from the 385 students, in order to test for the infractions predicted by strain theorists. Strain theorists emphasize the negative consequences of poor grades and low educational expectations for the adolescent's economic future. They also assert that educational expectations and academic performance affect boys more than girls and older adolescents more than younger adolescents. In contrast control theorists argue that immediate problems are more relevant to delinquency than is commitment to long-range goals. Although findings provided mixed support for both strain theory and control theory, they more clearly show a need for future research to show antecedent conditions' differential effects on adolescent subgroups. Illustrations, tables, an appendix presenting survey instruments, and a list of 98 references are included. (Author abstract modified)