Longitudinal Rates of Self-Reported Delinquency of At-Risk and Not At-Risk Western Australian High School Students

Abstract

Two hundred and forty nine 12 to 13 year old at-risk and not at-risk male and female high school students randomly selected from five high schools in the Perth metropolitan area of Western Australia provided self-reported delinquency data for three consecutive years. A multivariate analysis of variance revealed at-risk students self-reported significantly more involvement in delinquency at the first data collection point than their not at-risk counterparts. Male 12–13 year olds self-reported significantly more involvement in car related crimes, assault, rule infractions, and vandalism compared to their female peers. For some delinquent activities there were significant increases in involvement over time (Motor Vehicle, Drugs, and Public Disorder Offences) while for others (Theft, Rule Infractions, and Vandalism) this was not the case. In the majority of categories of delinquency at-risk students self reported significantly higher rates of involvement.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Blackburn

(1993). The psychology of criminal conduct: Theory, research and practice. New York: John Wiley and Sons.

Carroll

(1994). The development of delinquency: Integrating reputation enhancement theory and goal setting theory. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, The University of Western Australia, Perth.

Carroll

(1995). Characterising the goals of juvenile delinquents: Nature, content, and purpose. Psychology, Crime, and Law, 1, 247–260.

Carroll

Durkin

Hattie

Houghton

(1997). Goal setting among adolescents: A comparison of delinquent, at risk and not at risk youth. The Journal of Educational Psychology, 89(3), 441–450.

Carroll

Durkin

Houghton

Hattie

(1996). A validation of Mak's self-report delinquency scale. The Australian Journal of Psychology, 48, 1–8.

Carroll

Houghton

Hattie

Durkin

(1999). Adolescent reputation enhancement: Differentiating delinquent nondelinquent and at risk youths. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, 40(4), 593–606.

Dryfoos

J. G.

(1990). Adolescents at risk: Prevalence and prevention. New York: Oxford University Press.

Dunford

F. W.

Elliott

D. S.

(1982). Identifying career offenders with self-reported data. Washington, DC: National Institute of Mental Health.

Emler

(1984). Differential involvement in delinquency: Toward an interpretation in terms of reputation management. In Maher

B. A.

Maher

W. B.

(Eds.), Progress in Experimental Personality Research (Vol. 13 pp. 173–237). New York: Academic Press.

10.

Farrington

D. P.

(1986). Stepping stones to adult criminal careers. In Olweus

Block

Yarrow

M. R.

(Eds.), Development of antisocial and prosocial behaviour: Research, theories and issues (pp. 359–384). New York: Academic Press.

11.

Farrington

D. P.

West

D. J.

(1990). The Cambridge study in delinquent development: A longterm follow-up of 411 London males. In Kerner

H. J.

Kaiser

(Eds.), Criminality: Personality, behavior, life history (pp. 115–138). Berlin: Springer-Verlag.

12.

Ferrante

A. M.

Loh

N. S. N.

Maller

(1998). Crime and justice statistics for Western Australia: 1996 (Statistical Report 1996). Perth:The University of Western Australia, Crime Research Centre.

13.

Fergusson

D. M.

Horwood

L. J.

Nagin

D. S.

(2000). Offending trajectories in a New Zealand birth cohort. Criminology, 38(2), 525–551.

14.

Hindelang

M. J.

Hirschi

Weis

J. G.

(1981). Measuring delinquency. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.

15.

Houghton

Carroll

(1996). Enhancing reputations: The effective use of behavior management strategies by high school adolescent males. Scientia Pedagogica of Experimentalis, XXXIII(2), 227–244.

16.

Langsford

Douglas

Houghton

, (1998). Gender and age specific developmental patterns of risk taking behaviour among children and adolescents: An exploratory study. Westminster Studies in Education, 21, 7–20.

17.

Lorion

R. P.

Tolan

P. H.

Wahler

R. G.

(1987). Prevention. In Quay

H. C.

(Ed.), Handbook of juvenile delinquency (pp. 383–416). New York: John Wiley.

18.

Mak

A. S.

(1993). A self-report delinquency scale for Australian adolescents. Australian Journal of Psychology, 45(2), 75–79.

19.

Martin

(1997). Enhancing reputations: The effective use of behavior management strategies by high school adolescent females. Unpublished master's thesis, The University of Western Australia, Australia.

20.

Moffitt

T. E.

(1993). Adolescence-limited and life-course-persistent antisocial behavior: A developmental taxonomy. Psychological Review, 100, 674–701.

21.

Patterson

G. R.

DeBaryshe

B. D.

Ramsey

(1989). A developmental perspective on antisocial behavior. American Psychologist, 44, 329–335.

22.

Patterson

G. R.

Reid

J. B.

Dishion

(1992). A social interactional approach, Vol. 4: Antisocial boys. Eugene, Oregon: Castalia.

23.

Patterson

G. R.

Yoerger

(1997). A developmental model for late onset delinquency. In Osgood

D. Wayne

(Ed.), Nebraska Symposium on Delinquency: Vol. 44. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.

24.

Stahl

(1998). Delinquency cases in juvenile courts. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Fact Sheet 79. Author: U.S. Department of Justice.

25.

West

D. J.

Farrington

D. P.

(1977). The delinquent way of life. London: Heinemann.

26.

Western Australia Legislative Assembly . (1992). The final report of the select committee on youth affairs. Perth: Office of the Clerk of the Legislative Assembly.

27.

Wundersitz

(1993). Some statistics on youth offending: An inter-jurisdictional comparison. In Gale

Bailey-Harris

Wundersitz

(Eds.), Aboriginal youth and the criminal justice system: The injustice of justice? (pp. 18–36). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.