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Family, school, delinquency and criminality, the predictive power of an elaborated social control theory for males
Author(s) -
LE BLANC MARC
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
criminal behaviour and mental health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.63
H-Index - 54
eISSN - 1471-2857
pISSN - 0957-9664
DOI - 10.1002/cbm.1994.4.2.101
Subject(s) - juvenile delinquency , psychology , social control theory , situational ethics , developmental psychology , set (abstract data type) , predictive power , social psychology , computer science , programming language , philosophy , epistemology
The developmental paradigm of the criminal career implies that different factors, among a particular set of control theory variables, may support adolescent delinquency and adult criminality. In this paper we use a large set of family and school control theory variables, measured during early and late adolescence, to predict late adolescent delinquency and adult official and self‐reported criminality. To do so, we use a representative sample of male adolescents and multiple regression. When 18 family and 19 school variables are combined to predict adult criminality, only three remain highly significant, in the following order: school performance, attachment to parents and adolescent delinquency. Late adolescent delinquency accounts for a higher proportion of explained variance than adult criminality (36% versus 22% for official and 29% for self‐reported criminality). For the prediction of adolescent delinquency, the variables are, in the following order: previous self‐reported delinquency, school performance and family bonding. Some variables, such as school performance and parental attachment, have a long‐term impact on adult offending but others, such as deviant behaviour, demonstrate a situational impact on adolescent delinquency. On the basis of these results, a lifespan control theory of adult criminality is proposed.