Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice

The present study contributes to the study of self-control among adolescents by testing how self-control is affected by societal vulnerability and violent values and by investigating how (in)variant this relationship is for boys and girls. The Belgian International Self-Report Delinquency Study (ISRD-2) data were used to assess to what extent positive attitudes toward violence can be seen as mediators in the relationship between societal vulnerability and self-control. The findings suggest that violent values mediate the relationship between societal vulnerability and self-control. Despite results indicating higher self-control among females, when conducting the analyses separately by gender, we found that the relationship between societal vulnerability and self-control was very similar for boys and girls. It is concluded that societally vulnerable boys and girls are equally affected by the intermediate mechanism of violent values.

Although scholarly interest in empirically assessing Gottfredson and Hirschi’s (1990) self-control theory continues to grow, there is little research available on evaluating its utility in China. The current study examines the power of self-control theory as an explanation of juvenile minor risky behavior as well as minor delinquent behaviors in China, while simultaneously considering the role of social bonds. The data were collected from a probability sample of 7th, 8th, and 9th graders in Hangzhou, China (N = 1,043) using the second International Self-Report Delinquency (ISRD-2) survey instrument. The results from the logistic regression analyses show that self-control is associated with both measures of Chinese youth deviance in the expected direction, suggesting that the youth with low self-control have a higher likelihood to report minor risky and delinquent behavior. The effects of self-control remain when controlling for social bonding measures. Among the social bonding factors, beliefs (pro-violence attitude) and family bonding were found to be the significant predictors of risky behavior and minor delinquency, respectively.

Underage use of alcohol is a large and increasing problem in Eastern Europe. The objective of this comparative study is to examine the effects of family-related factors on youth alcohol consumption in three East-European countries (Estonia, the Czech Republic, and Hungary). Data on alcohol use and risk factors were drawn from the International Self-Report Delinquency Study (ISRD-2). Using binary logistic regression, it was found that in all three countries, adolescents with stronger parental supervision were more likely to be abstinent and less likely to be involved in heavy episodic drinking than those with weaker supervision. Parental bonding had similar positive effects regarding abstinence in Hungary and the Czech Republic but not in Estonia. In the Czech Republic, adolescents living in single-parent households were less involved in heavy episodic drinking, whereas affluence increased heavy episodic drinking. This effect is not found for Hungary and Estonia. Adolescents in Estonia who experienced more negative life events were more involved in heavy episodic drinking; this was not so for the other two countries. We conclude that family social control is a universal protective factor in decreasing alcohol use in these three Eastern European countries; concerning the other factors, the results were more mixed.

The article studies self-reported alcohol consumption of European juveniles and examines its link to the level of their self-control, making use of data from International Self-Report Delinquency Study 2 (ISRD-2). The proportion of problematic drinkers and the mean level of self-control as well as the strength of the association differs among European countries. Following Gottfredson and Hirschi’s general theory of crime, two hypotheses are tested, focusing on different degrees of social tolerance of juvenile drinking and alcohol availability (i.e., opportunity). Findings based on logistic multilevel models for several indicators of problematic alcohol use suggest that social tolerance (reflected in the level of cultural acceptance of juvenile drinking and in the level of policy strictness) can indeed explain the cross-national differences in the strength of self-control–problematic drinking relationship, while the contribution of opportunity is questionable in this respect. Opportunity, however, is highly relevant when explaining cross-cultural differences in the extent of problematic drinking.

The goal of the article is to investigate whether well-established risk factors for delinquency among adolescents are equally important for males and females. The risk factors discussed here are derived from four theoretical approaches: social bonding/social control theory, self-control theory, routine activities/opportunity theory, and social disorganization theory. Data are drawn from the International Self-Reported Delinquency study (ISRD-2). The results show that the risk factors proposed by social bonding theory, social disorganization theory, routine activities/opportunity theory, and self-control theory are not equally related to delinquent behavior among males and females. When all the theoretically relevant factors are combined together, three interaction terms are found to be statistically significant; family disruption and deviant behavior of friends have more influence on delinquent behavior of females, whereas the lack of self-control is more strongly related to delinquency among males.

One longstanding research interest of criminology that has seen resurgence of late is the relationship between offending and victimization. This line of research reveals that offending and victimization are not randomly distributed among the population but clustered within the same individuals. These individuals share similar individual characteristics and experiences with violence and deviance. Research has only begun to explain this overlap using existing theoretical frameworks. Further, despite this recent interest, little is known about the overlap between theft offending and victimization. To expand and add clarity to the body of research on the victim–offender overlap, the current study uses data from the second International Self-Report Delinquency Study (ISRD-2) to investigate the link between violent and theft offending/victimization. Results reveal that there is a consistent positive relationship between all forms of offending and victimization. Offending and victimization are also accounted for using similar explanatory frameworks.

In this article, we investigate the use of a multivariate exploratory data analysis technique, nonlinear principle components analysis (NPCA). The technique is presented as a means for thorough descriptive analysis in a multivariate setting and with data of varying levels of measurement. The technique includes a strong visualization component of the kind previously only available for only one- and two-variable situations. This multivariate technique makes possible more thorough pre-analysis examination of data, a step frequently overlooked in most quantitative research. The data examined are self-reported prevalence measures for property crime from the Second International Self-Report Delinquency Study (ISRD-2). Our examination suggested that: (a) the property variable seems to group around two underlying dimensions (“Simple Object Dimension” and the “Complex Object Dimension”); (b) hacking proved to be a potentially very interesting but yet problematic variable due to interpretation of the item by the youthful respondents; and (c) the groupings and subgroupings of variables do show distinct nonrandom relationships among the 30 country property crime profiles in the analysis as well as the Esping-Andersen/ISRD-2 clustering system widely used in ISRD-2 research efforts.

Based on two samples of juveniles (total n = 1,629), this experimental study explores effects of modifying the design (not the wording) of a self-report questionnaire on prevalences and incidences of delinquency - the core instrument of the second International Self-Report Delinquency (ISRD-2) study. Research questions are: Do rates of self-reported delinquency differ by questionnaire design? Are there differences in item nonresponse? Do these effects differ by person characteristics, especially self-control? Do effect sizes of predictors of offending differ by questionnaire design? Omitting follow-up questions and reversing the response categories no/yes generates higher levels of self-reported delinquency as to minor offenses. Item nonresponse is affected by the design of filter questions and by person characteristics (e.g., low self-control) correlating with delinquency. Although the modifications reduce underreporting, effects of predictors on delinquency do not differ substantially. Nevertheless, more variance is explained using the modified version data.