Why Do Kids Become Delinquent - A Comparison of Explanations Given by Probation Officers, Minors and Their Families

• NCJ Number: 79636
• Author(s): I J Sagatun
• Date Published: 1977
• Length: 34 pages
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Findings and implications are presented from a study that compared how minors, their families, and probation officers view the causes of delinquency.

Abstract

The study was based in attribution theory, which is concerned with the process by which people assign the causes of behavior to internal or external factors (Heider, 1958). Internal factors are causes within the acting individual, such as motivation and ability. External factors are causes outside the acting individual, such as family circumstances or the social conditions impacting the acting person. A questionnaire study investigating how probation officers, minors, and minors' families perceive the causes of delinquency was conducted through a county juvenile probation department in a large suburban county. Different questionnaires were administered to each group, although the thrust of the questions was basically the same for each questionnaire. A total of 101 probation officers, 68 juvenile probationers, and 57 parents of the probationers participated in the study. The hypothesis that actors tend to make external attributions for misbehavior while observers view internal factors as instrumental in such behavior was confirmed in the study. Minors tended to make external attributions for all kinds of delinquency, while probation officers and families tended to make internal attributions. Results also confirmed the prediction that events which might reflect negatively on oneself are attributed away from oneself. The data also confirmed, in the case of probation officers, that the more serious the consequences of an event, the more internal the attribution. Differences in the perception of causes by class and by sex both show that the more unexpected the behavior, the more likely it is to be given an internal attribution. These findings have implications for the likelihood that juvenile probationers and their probation officers will agree on a treatment approach. Seventeen footnotes, 26 bibliographic listings, and tabular data are provided.