Causes Of Delinquency

In Causes of Delinquency, Hirschi attempts to state and test a theory of delinquency, seeing in the delinquent a person relatively free of the intimate attachments, the aspirations, and the moral beliefs that bind most people to a life within the law. In prominent alternative theories, the delinquent appears either as a frustrated striver forced into delinquency by his acceptance of the goals common to us all, or as an innocent foreigner attempting to obey the rules of a society that is not in position to make the law or define conduct as good or evil. Hirschi analyzes a large body of data on delinquency collected in Western Contra Costa County, California, contrasting throughout the assumptions of the strain, control, and cultural deviance theories. He outlines the assumptions of these theories and discusses the logical and empirical difficulties attributed to each of them. Then draws from sources an outline of social control theory, the theory that informs the subsequent analysis and which is advocated here.Often listed as a Citation Classic, Causes of Delinquency retains its force and cogency with age. It is an important volume and a necessary addition to the libraries of sociologists, criminologists, scholars and students in the area of delinquency.

This book focuses on the causes, control and consequences of juvenile delinquency. Chapter One begins with an overview of the social, cultural and interpersonal issues with justice involved adolescents. Chapter Two's purpose is to help understand the major developmental theorist's view of critical developmental milestones, understand the social, biological and interpersonal effects on an adolescents' functioning; learn how rage, anger and delinquency are central components in the developing adolescents' skills to manage behavioral outbursts; identify aspects of depression and anxiety in adolescents and how these symptoms manifest into pathology; learn skills and tools to work with adolescents who struggle with these changes and adolescents who are defiant to the therapy process; identify markers related to low and inflated self-esteem and how it may disrupt adolescent development; improve awareness of friendship development and group identity contribute and its impact on decision making; and identify ethical and other best practice implications. Chapter Three studies the construction of juvenile restorative justice in Italy and Chile, how these policies are implemented in practice, and how families participate in these processes. Chapter Four discusses youth transitions and social exclusion through an empirical study of young ex-offenders' reintegration in China.

A great deal has been learned about serious child and adolescent conduct problems, but their causes are still not well understood. This book brings together an international group of leading authorities to advance specific, testable hypotheses about the causes of conduct disorder and juvenile delinquency. Four general causal models are delineated: the social learning model, the developmental pathways model, an integrative antisocial propensity model, and an integrative ecological/developmental model. Also provided are models focusing on specific aspects of the origins of conduct problems, including contextual, psychological, and biological influences. The authors present significant, original theoretical work and map out the kinds of further studies needed to confirm or disconfirm their new or revised hypotheses.

This volume marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of Travis Hirschi's seminal work Causes of Delinquency. The influence of Hirschi's book, and the theory of social control it described, can scarcely be overstated. Social control theory has been empirically tested or commented on by hundreds of scholars and is generally regarded as one of the three dominant theories of crime. The current work highlights the impact that social control theory has had on criminological theory and research to date. Agnew's contribution highlights the role that Hirschi's tests of control versus strain theory had in contributing to the "near demise" of classic strain theories, and to the subsequent development of general strain theory. Serrano-Maillo relates control to drift, and Tedor and Hope compare the human nature assumptions of control theory to the current psychological literature. Other contributions return to Hirschi's original Richmond Youth Survey (RYS) data and demonstrate the robustness of Hirschi's major findings. Costello and Anderson find strong support for Hirschi's predictions in an analysis of a diverse group of youths in Fayetteville, Arkansas, in 1999; Nofziger similarly finds support for Hirschi's predictions with an analysis of the girls in the RYS, and explores the criticisms of social control theory that were the result of Hirschi's failure to analyze the data from the girls in the sample. Kempf-Leonard revisits her seminal 1993 survey of control theory and reviews the current empirical status of control theory. Other contributions explore new directions for both social control theory and self-control theory. The contribution by Cullen, Lee, and Butler holds that one element of the social bond, commitment, was under-theorized by Hirschi, and the authors present a more in-depth development of the concept. Quist explores the possibility of expanding social control theory to explicitly incorporate exchange theory concepts; Ueda and Tsutomi apply control theory cross-culturally to a sample of Japanese students; and Felson uses control theory to organize criminological ideas. Vazsonyi and Javakhishvili's contribution is an empirical analysis of the connections between social control in early childhood and self-control later in life; Chapple and McQuillan's contribution suggests that the gender gap in delinquency is better explained by increased controls in girls than by gendered pathways to offending. Oleson traces the evolution of Hirschi's control theory, and suggests that, given the relationships between fact and theory, a biosocial model of control might be a promising line of inquiry. Fifty Years of Causes of Delinquency: The Criminology of Travis Hirschi describes the current state of control theory and suggests its future directions, as well as demonstrates its enduring importance for criminological theory and research. The volume will be of interest to scholars working in the control theory tradition as well as those critical of the perspective, and is suitable for use in graduate courses in criminological theory.

[In this book, the author offers] key theoretical and conceptual issues in the field and includes all of the information that is relevant and timely in a juvenile delinquency text. [It also] offers f ... how criminologists conduct their research - with chapters on how they measure delinquency, examine whether certain factors cause delinquency, and determine whether programs and policies are effective in controlling delinquency.-Back cover.

Even though youth crime rates have fallen since the mid-1990s, public fear and political rhetoric over the issue have heightened. The Columbine shootings and other sensational incidents add to the furor. Often overlooked are the underlying problems of child poverty, social disadvantage, and the pitfalls inherent to adolescent decisionmaking that contribute to youth crime. From a policy standpoint, adolescent offenders are caught in the crossfire between nurturance of youth and punishment of criminals, between rehabilitation and "get tough" pronouncements. In the midst of this emotional debate, the National Research Council's Panel on Juvenile Crime steps forward with an authoritative review of the best available data and analysis. Juvenile Crime, Juvenile Justice presents recommendations for addressing the many aspects of America's youth crime problem. This timely release discusses patterns and trends in crimes by children and adolescentsâ€"trends revealed by arrest data, victim reports, and other sources; youth crime within general crime; and race and sex disparities. The book explores desistanceâ€"the probability that delinquency or criminal activities decrease with ageâ€"and evaluates different approaches to predicting future crime rates. Why do young people turn to delinquency? Juvenile Crime, Juvenile Justice presents what we know and what we urgently need to find out about contributing factors, ranging from prenatal care, differences in temperament, and family influences to the role of peer relationships, the impact of the school policies toward delinquency, and the broader influences of the neighborhood and community. Equally important, this book examines a range of solutions: Prevention and intervention efforts directed to individuals, peer groups, and families, as well as day care-, school- and community-based initiatives. Intervention within the juvenile justice system. Role of the police. Processing and detention of youth offenders. Transferring youths to the adult judicial system. Residential placement of juveniles. The book includes background on the American juvenile court system, useful comparisons with the juvenile justice systems of other nations, and other important information for assessing this problem.

Working from a unique, question-centered structure, the third edition of Robert Agnew's popular Juvenile Delinquency offers a clear and concise overview of the theories and research on the causes and control of delinquency. In this engaging text, Agnew provides an overview of the leading theories of delinquency--strain theory, social learning theory, social- and self-control theory, labeling theory, and situational theories--and discusses the latest research on the causes of delinquency, from biological research to research on the social environment. Moreover, he presents an overview of agencies including the police, the juvenile court, and juvenile corrections, highlighting recent efforts to increase their effectiveness. In conclusion, he explores general strategies for controlling delinquency: deterrence, incapacitation, rehabilitation, and prevention. Instead of attempting to provide a sweeping view of the entire subject, Agnew organizes the text around three major questions: * What is the nature and extent of delinquency? * What are the causes of delinquency? * What strategies should we employ to control delinquency? These thought-provoking questions draw students into the text, challenging them to use major theories to explain the basic facts about delinquency, to understand the research on its causes, and to develop and evaluate programs and policies for its control. Revised and updated throughout, Juvenile Delinquency also includes rich pedagogical resources. Each chapter integrates activities that encourage students to apply what they have learned, including review questions, a list of key terms, discussion questions, excerpts of controversial cases, and lively exercises. In addition, the "Teaching Aids" sections provide numerous new exercises. A comprehensive Instructor's Manual is also available. An essential resource for exploring juvenile delinquency in the twenty-first century, Juvenile Delinquency, Third Edition, challenges students to address important questions about this timely and fascinating topic.

In this century, social factors have dominated theories of antisocial behaviour to the near-exclusion of other explanatory variables in the study of criminology. Criminologists are now coming to realise that fully understanding the causes of criminality requires consideration of both social and biological variables and that their models must take into account the interaction of the two. Reports of the relevant scientific work have previously been scattered through journals with varying disciplinary and geographical limitations. The book presents state-of-the-art investigation into the biological factors that produce criminal activity from authorities in nine countries who are on the forefront of research in behaviour genetics, neurophysiology, biochemistry, neuropsychology, psychophysiology, psychiatry and sociology. The Causes of Crime: New Biological Approaches offers the first comprehensive overview and integration of this new field of enquiry. It will be an invaluable resource for everyone concerned with the causes of criminal behaviour and interventions to reduce its frequency.