NCJ Number
177943
Journal
Justice Quarterly Volume: 16 Issue: 2 Dated: June 1999 Pages: 377-401
Date Published
1999
Length
25 pages
Annotation
This study examines the impact of legal sanctions on delinquency and youths' status achievement in the areas of schooling and employment.
Abstract
The data set used was the London panel data set created by Farrington (1994). The information was obtained from 411 London working-class boys born in 1953. The boys were interviewed eight times over a period of 24 years, beginning at age 8 and continuing to age 32. The data set contains a comprehensive list of variables that can be used to test the effects of individual attributes, family background, social bonds, and legal sanctions on delinquency and status achievement. The study focused on three sets of variables: delinquency variables, social control variables, and status achievement variables. Informal social control was measured by an index of social bonds, which consisted of three variables collected at age 12-13: attachment to parents, commitment to education, and involvement in school work. Delinquency variables were self-reported delinquency scores. Formal control was measured by incidence of legal sanction, defined as a delinquency conviction that resulted from an offense or offenses committed between the ages of 10 and 17. Status achievement variables measured status attainment at ages 18-19. Achievements in schooling and occupation were measured. Findings show that youths who were labeled by the juvenile justice system as delinquent were more likely than unlabeled juveniles to engage in delinquent peer relationships and to develop deviant identities by participating in antisocial behaviors. Labeled juveniles were also more likely to be underachievers in education, job stability, and occupational status. These findings show the need for integrating labeling theories and the life- course perspective into research on status attainment. 1 table, 2 figures, 55 references, and appended variables and measurement in the structural equation, zero-order correlations among the observed variables, standardized factor loadings in the measurement models, and standardized effects of exogenous variables