Situational Effects on the Decisions of Adolescent Offenders To Carry Out Delinquent Acts, Relations to Moral Reasoning, Moral Goals, and Personal Constructs (From Criminal Behavior and the Justice System: Psychological Perspectives, P 81-102, 1989, Hermann Wegener, et al, eds. -- See NCJ-116624)

• NCJ Number: 116629
• Author(s): R W Goldsmith; G Throfast; P-E Nilsson
• Date Published: 1989
• Length: 22 pages
• Sale Source: Springer-Verlag
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Data from 12 Swedish delinquent male subjects and 12 nondelinquent school dropouts formed the basis of an analysis of the effect of moral goals, moral reasoning, and personal constructs on the decisions to perform delinquent acts.

Abstract

The participants responded orally to the questions contained in five instruments: the Delinquent Behavior Interview, the Act Evaluation Task, the Sociomoral Reflection Measure, the Goal Ranking Task, and the Repertory Grid Test. Results indicated that even adolescents with serious delinquency problems may vary markedly in the degree and pattern of the difficulties they encounter in adjusting to society and suggested the need for individualized efforts to help. Findings also showed that a variety of factors related directly or indirectly to the readiness to engage in delinquent acts. These factors included goal priorities, evaluations of wrongness, cognitive complexity, moral development level, feelings of insecurity, parental rejection or inadequacy, and situational factors. Moral development level appeared to be related to proneness to delinquency in only an indirect way. Tables, appended comments from participants, and 50 references.