Routine Activities and Deviant Behaviors: American, Dutch, Hungarian, and Swiss Youth

• NCJ Number: 199180
• Journal: Journal of Quantitative Criminology Volume: 18 Issue: 4 Dated: December 2002 Pages: 397-422
• Author(s): Alexander T. Vazsonyi; Lloyd E. Pickering; Lara M. Belliston; Dick Hessing; Marianne Junger
• Editor(s): David McDowall
• Date Published: December 2002
• Length: 26 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This paper examines the routine activities explanatory framework using self-report data from American, Dutch, Hungarian, and Swiss youth to test whether the relationships between different types of routine activities and various deviance measures were similar or different by country.

Abstract

Previous research has suggested that routine activities or lifestyles frameworks may be useful in gaining an understanding of how, where, and perhaps with whom individuals spend their time. In other words, individuals with weak attachments and /or a greater individual propensity to commit a norm-violating act may spend their time in systematically different ways than individuals who are less likely to commit a deviant act. This paper presents findings from an investigation that examined the relationship between adolescent routine activities (family, peer, solitary, and community) and deviance in samples from Eastern and Western Europe, as well as the United States. The investigation sought to reassess the relationship between adolescent routine activities and deviance, assess the relationship between routine activities and deviance using a number of multi-item, scalar measures of deviance, and examine the importance of national context as a moderator of the routine activities--deviance relationship. Data were collected as part of the International Study of Adolescent Development (ISAD), a multinational, multisite investigation consisting of 8,500 subjects from Hungary, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and the United States. The study suggests that routine activities of youth in the four countries are quite similar. In addition, it suggests that how youth spend their time, whether males or females, appears to be related to deviance in a highly similar fashion cross-nationally. With the exception of alcohol and drug use, national context had very little or no explanatory power in adolescent deviance. Appendix and references