Specific Attitudes Towards Delinquency: Identification, Measurement, and the Effects on Behavior

• In Event: Specifying the Relationship between Delinquent Attitudes, Neutralization Techniques and Delinquency

Abstract

Extant research indicates that most adolescents hold attitudes against delinquency and that they are poor predictors of behavior. Studies almost always employ measures that ask about an adolescent’s “general” beliefs about delinquent behaviors (i.e., how wrong is it to fight), however, which ignores the more nuanced exceptions adolescents may hold for when delinquency is acceptable and justified. This study uses a survey to assess the exceptions that adolescents hold to their general attitudes towards fighting and theft among a sample of 11th graders in a large public high school. The results speak to the importance of "specific" attitudes, and highlight important lessons for theory and measurement.

Author

• Kyle Thomas, University of Maryland