Statistical Outliers of Juvenile Delinquency: A Focus on Pure Conformists

• In Event: Less Often Studied for Delinquency: Intelligence, Differential Disadvantage, Social Distance, and Conformists

Abstract

While the study of juvenile delinquency and young adult crime has a long history in a variety of disciplines, much of the research has been focused on the statistical normalcy of law-violating behavior—adolescent-limited, relatively minor, group offending—with outliers being excluded from analysis. While the vast majority of individuals break the law at least one time in their life (typically as adolescents), there has been little research on one of the most interesting outliers of juvenile delinquency—pure conformists. Yet, there is much to be learned from the experiences of those juveniles and young adults who deviate from the statistically normal pattern of minor group offending during adolescence, and instead refrain from all law violation, termed pure conformists. Data from Waves I and II of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health are analyzed using binary and multinomial logistic regression in order to uncover correlations between pure conformists (including two distinct types of abstainers) and statistically normal juveniles. Findings, limitations, and considerations for future research are discussed.

Author

• H. Jaymi Michell Elsass, Texas State University