Changing Contexts: A Quasi-Experiment Examining Adolescent Delinquency and the Transition to High School

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  In Refereed Roundtable (60 min): Table 5: School Discipline

Abstract

Criminologists debate whether and how changing social context affects delinquency. On the one hand, some scholars argue that delinquency is the result of relatively stable individual traits that are set in childhood and changing social context should have relatively little impact on delinquency. On the other hand, scholars maintain that alterations in social context do indeed affect delinquency, to the degree that context shapes social bonds, criminal opportunity, and motivation to engage in delinquent behavior. In this study we examine whether changing schools during the transition from 8th to 9th grade influences delinquency among adolescents. Our sample consists of over 14,000 students who attend middle and/or high school in one of 26 public school districts that took part in the Promoting School-Community Partnerships to Enhance Resilience (PROSPER) study. This unique data source follows students over eight panels of data from 6th through 12th grade and represents one of the first to directly compare students who change schools with those who remain in the same school during this period. Results show delinquency levels increase over the high school years, and students who transition experience a temporary, significant increase in delinquency during the year that directly follows the transition. However, transition students report lower levels of delinquency after the shift than their non-transition counterparts, and this trend lasts throughout high school. Overall, our findings highlight the importance of changing social context for adolescent delinquency.

Authors

• Brittany N. Freelin, Pennsylvania State University

• Cassie McMillan, Northeastern University

• Diane H. Felmlee, Pennsylvania State University

• D. Wayne Osgood, Pennsylvania State University