This study examined different types of longitudinal associations (i.e., directional links and overlapping developmental changes) between children's delinquency and the quality of parent-child relationships from middle childhood to late adolescence. We used 10-wave interview data of 503 boys, their primary caregivers, and their teachers. Our first aim was to unravel the direction of effects betw...

Traditionally, the juvenile justice system has focused on dealing with youth after an initial contact with the local juvenile court. While this reactive emphasis on delinquent behavior is still prominent and necessary, the last 20 years has seen the emergence of a proactive approach to help stem the swell of delinquent youth. This new approach is known as the public health model of crime preven...

The relationship between delinquent involvement and the perceived importance of a variety of others in influencing, creating, and sustaining identity was explored in four subsamples (n = 238) of teens of varying levels of official delinquency. More delinquent teens were more likely to view conventional peers, delinquent peers and lifestyles, or no one at all as influencing their sense of self a...

This study uses longitudinal data from an ethnically diverse sample of 300 ninth grade students to examine the moderating effect of parenting practices upon the relationship between gang involvement and adolescent problem behavior. Results of hierarchical linear modeling indicate that gang involvement is a highly significant positive predictor of each of three categories of problem behavior (mi...

methodological problems with many reports on female gangs. This Bulletin summarizes both past and current research on female gangs and draws attention to programmatic and research needs. It considers the underlying reasons for female gang membership, assesses the delinquency and criminal activity of female gang members, examines how ethnicity and gender norms may influence female gang behavior,...

This research blends 2 traditions of theorizing on the causes of crime, one focused on the role of individual differences and the other focused on structural and contextual variables. Two related studies examined the relations among impulsivity, neighborhood context, and juvenile offending. The first, cross-sectional study uses a large sample of 13-year-old inner-city boys, whereas the second, ...

BACKGROUND Previous studies of the causes of delinquency have been based on between-individual correlations. This paper aims to study the causes of delinquency by comparing within-individual and between-individual correlations of risk factors with delinquency. METHOD A total of 506 boys in the oldest sample of the Pittsburgh Youth Study were followed up in seven data waves between ages 13.8 a...