NCJ Number
214031
Date Published
2002
Length
296 pages
Annotation
This study examined whether Merton's strain theory of delinquency causes applies similarly to Latinos, Whites, and African-Americans.
Abstract
This study found that strain theory was largely supported among Latino, White, and African-American youth, suggesting that strain theory is a general explanatory model for delinquency among lower class youth. Still, there were differences in the influence of specific variables of strain theory among the groups. For Latino youth, strain theory was less powerful than for the other two groups in explaining general delinquency, alcohol use, drug use, property crime, and violent crimes. The impact of delinquent peers and delinquent values was evident only for African-Americans and Whites. For Latino youth, access to illegitimate opportunities had a greater influence in determining delinquent outcomes. The study used longitudinal data from the Denver Youth Survey (DYS) and the Rochester Youth Development Study (RYDS) in examining the traditional and modified strain theory models. Strain theory holds that unequal access to legitimate means for economic advancement and social status condition youth to engage in criminal behaviors and associations as means of income and social status. Merton's anomie theory suggests that "social structures generate the circumstances in which infringement of social codes constitutes a 'normal' response." Latinos in the samples were those from Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Central America, and South America. The DYS consisted of annual interviews with a probability sample of 5 birth cohorts (n=1,530) and their parents. Strain theory was examined by using three waves of data from 1990 to 1992. The RYDS sample consisted of 1,000 students who were seventh and eighth graders in Rochester, NY, during the spring 1988 semester. Extensive tabular data, appended instruments for variable measurement, 106 references, and a subject index