A Cross – National Study of Youth Offending Toward an Integration of Individual- and Macro- level Theory of Crime Across 25 Countries

• In Event: Cross-national Crime Research

Abstract

Cross – national study in the field of criminology has been developed by recent trends in globalization of political, social, economic, and technological issues as well as global recognition that crime is a worldwide phenomenon. While testing criminological theories and concepts in cross – national study provides a chance to establish the scientific generalizability of specific causal mechanisms across different countries, comparative criminologists must overcome both theoretical and methodological limitations while conducting their research. The current project attempts to integrate the three existing contemporary criminology theories – self-control theory, social bonding theory, and lifestyle/routine activities theory, considering social contextual characteristics based on institutional anomie theory. Utilizing the second wave of International Self-Report Delinquency Study (ISRD-2), the current research reports that individuals’ attachment to significant others and high level self-control are negatively related to youth’s violent and property offending across 25 different countries. Results of the current research are expected to provide theoretical and methodological implications for cross – national criminology research, particularly on issues related to measurement invariance testing and theoretical integration in the field of criminology.

Author

• Myunghoon Roh, Texas A&M University - San Antonio