A questionnaire on drinking behavior and attitudes was administered to 292 delinquent youth confined in youth detention homes in St. Anthony, Idaho, and Ogden, Utah, and to 466 students i n the secondary schools of the Pocatello. School District, Pocatello, Idaho. Using a Chi Square analysis, comparisons were made of responses between the delinquent and non-delinquent groups to questions regarding first drinking experience, present drinking behavior, attitudes toward drinking, criminal acts while drinking alcoholic beverages, age, race, sex, family income, population of area lived in, with whom the students lived, and parents' drinking behavior. Significant differences at the .001 per cent level were found between the responses of delinquents and non-delinquents in all areas compared with the exception of the father's drinking behavior where a difference at the .05 per cent level was found. In summary, the results showed that the delinquent population of this s tudy (l) began drinking sooner and more frequently than the non-delinquent population, (2) drank for different reasons than the non-delinquents, and (3) drank without their parents' permission more frequently than the non-delinquents. In addition, a higher percentage of the non-delinquents did not drink in comparison with the delinquents who did. This study also indicated that the older the delinquent and non-delinquent students were, the more frequently they drank. The frequency of drinking of both the delinquent and the non-delinquent students was related to the frequency of their parents' drinking. As the parents drank more frequently, the more frequently the delinquent and non-delinquent students drank.

This thesis investigates the nature and the development of a delinquent social identity. Three issues are addressed. These concern the negative identity that results from social comparison processes in school, the role of the peer group in delinquency and the variable nature of the delinquent social identity. One argument of the thesis, which is based on the concepts of self-categorization theory, is that the delinquent social identity develops out of a negative identity because of perceived differences between groups of adolescents in the school in terms of their commitment to academic studies and their attitude towards authority. The first study in this thesis demonstrates that compared to non delinquents, delinquents are more likely to perceive their social status in the school to be low as well as stable, and are more concerned about their reputation among their peers. Also, delinquents are more likely to rationalize against guilt through the techniques of neutralization, are more likely to value unconventional norms and tend to have negative experiences, both at home and in school. Based on social identity theory, this thesis argues that delinquency arises out of a search for an alternative positive identity through " social creativity ", which is only possible through the group. Membership in a delinquent group or a delinquent social identity offers the delinquent a sense of " positive distinctiveness " which is derived from the rejection, redefinition and reversal of conventional norms. It is only through a social identity where members perceive each other as interchangeable and share an interdependency, that such a reversal receives social validation, and that members achieve a sense of self-consistency which becomes part of their reputation. The second study in this thesis confirms that delinquents show a relative preference for a group strategy of derogation of the outgroup for coping with negative social comparison, rather than one which involves an individual strategy of competition, and that this group strategy is more likely to enhance their self-esteem. Delinquents' tendency to reverse conventional norms is demonstrated in the third study of the thesis, which also revealed that this reversal is evident only when delinquents are compared to non delinquents, and that this rejection is not total. These findings not only provide support for Cohen's subcultural theory of delinquency but also that of Sykes and Matza who argue that delinquents drift in and out of such behaviours. In fact, this thesis suggests that this drift can be explained in terms of a shift in the salience of identity. Because the delinquent identity is a social identity, it is variable and context-dependent. Differences in attitudes towards authority, rationalizations against guilt and self-derogation can be explained by differences in the salience of the delinquent social identity. The last three studies of the thesis provide evidence of these variations with both self-report and incarcerated delinquents.

It was the purpose of this study to attempt to discover if the educational background and judgment ability of juvenile delinquents are markedly impaired, as indicated by the Information and Comprehension subtest scores of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children.

The purpose of this study is to add to the knowledge of juvenile delinquency in our society as it may be discerned through reports by those who have committed delinquent, but in most cases unadjudicated, acts. This study further seeks to add a dimension to the body of knowledge already gained through self-report techniques by discovering whether there are any important differences to be observed in comparing surveys of limited Negro and white populations.

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of group counseling upon personality and behavior changes in delinquent girls confined in a state training school in Texas.

A comparison of perception of locus of control and identification of goals between delinquent and non-delinquent juvenile females was conducted. The delinquent sample consisted of 20 female students at the Idaho State Youth Training Center. The non-delinquent sample consisted of 20 female students from two Idaho Public Secondary schools. The non-delinquent subjects were paired with the delinquent subjects as closely as possible according to age, religion, education, size and composition of family, and size of home town. The instruments used were: (l) a background questionnaire, (2) a goal identification questionnaire, and (3) Rotter's I-E scale. The difference between the mean I-E score of the delinquent subjects and the non-delinquent subjects was not significant. The non delinquent subjects identified significantly more goals, both long-term and short-term, than the delinquent subjects, Both samples identified goals in all five categories, but the non-delinquent subjects identified significantly more goals in the paid employment, individually oriented, and interpersonally oriented categories. The inverse correlation between the number of goals identified and the subjects' I-E score was not significant.

The significance of this research study is to identify if an adolescences family structure impacts their developmental behaviors. The research design for this study was a quantitative design. The data analysis includes the independent variable (IV) and dependent variable (DV). For this study the IV was family structure and the DV in this study was delinquent behaviors. The findings suggest that during the pre-assessment tool researchers found there was no significance between family structure and delinquent behaviors. However, during the post assessment researchers found that there was significance between family structure and delinquent behavior. Although this study did not find significance during the pre-assessment, there were significant findings in the post-assessment that demonstrated that social workers should continue to consider family dynamics when assessing adolescents’ developmental behaviors.

This study was designed to refine and validate a 160-item self-report instrument which drew its items from personality theories and from clinical practice related to delinquency. The aim was to estimate the usefulness of items descriptive of delinquent behavior by testing their reliability and discriminative power. There were two objectives. First: to test a set of items for their power to discriminate delinquent from non-delinquent responses which referred to delinquent and nondelinquent behavior. Second, to validate the power of the selected set of items to discriminate delinquent from non-delinquent youths in a second mixed group. Both objectives were realized in that significantly discriminating items emerged, which when administered to a second group, correctly classified 80% of the tested youths. The subjects in this study were youths who were selected as delinquents (n = 125) and nondelinquents (N = 125). The items used in the measuring instrument were collected over a period of several. years and based on theoretic al and clinical resources. Selected items referred to family togetherness, family supportiveness, limit-setting and behavior consequences, self-esteem and success, and school functioning. The results of the study provide a set of items which may be administered to help describe dis social behavior. The items may be used to educate parents, other adults, and students in recognizing some psycho-social behaviors related to interpersonal social behavior.

The number of dependent youth reported as runaways to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement has become an increasing concern to the Department of Children and Families (Child Welfare League of America, 2005). Youth under state supervision, who are reported as runaways, most often leave from foster care settings, although some youth are also reported as runaways from the homes of relatives, non-relatives, and biological parents (CWLA, 2005). Community based care (CBC) agencies responsible for the supervision of dependent children in the State of Florida have struggled to develop an effective means of addressing the problem of running away and have subsequently been unable to decrease the number of dependent youth reported as runaways each year (CWLA, 2005). The current study evaluated a behavioral approach through a multiple baseline design to address the runaway behavior of dependent youth. Behavior contracts were used with three runaway youth placed in foster care which showed an initial increase in the number of days spent in an approved placement for all three participants. While the increase in the number of days spent in an approved placement did not maintain for one participant, a decrease in runaway behavior was demonstrated and maintained for the other two participants.

Objectives: To examine the association between traumatic brain injury (TBI) in delinquent youth and facial emotion recognition (FER) abilities, offending, behavioural difficulties, aggression, empathic sadness and parenting. Participants & Setting: Forty-eight delinquent youth, aged 14 to 19 years, recruited from Youth Offending Teams and Targeted Youth Support. Main Measures: A cross sectional case-control design compared individuals in a TBI versus a non-TBI group on a forced-choice, FER paradigm assessing recognition accuracy to six basic emotions. Self-reported measures of TBI, behavioural difficulties, experience of parenting, reactive and proactive aggression, and empathic sadness. Results: History of TBI was reported by 68.7% of the sample, with 94% including a loss of consciousness. No significant differences were found between TBI and non-TBI groups on FER accuracy. Participants in the TBI group self-reported significantly higher proactive and reactive aggression and lower levels of parental supervision as compared to the non-TBI group. Tendency to incorrectly give ‘anger’ as a response on the FER task was strongly positively associated with proactive and reactive aggression. Conclusions: Future research requires larger samples recruited across settings to further investigate the association between FER abilities and TBI in this population. Findings highlight the need for TBI to be appropriately assessed and managed in delinquent youth, and highlights important aggression differences.