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DIFFERENTIAL RATES OF RURAL‐URBAN DELINQUENCY: A Social Control Approach
Author(s) -
LYERLY ROBERT RICHARD,
SKIPPER JAMES K.
Publication year - 1981
Publication title -
criminology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.467
H-Index - 139
eISSN - 1745-9125
pISSN - 0011-1384
DOI - 10.1111/j.1745-9125.1981.tb00424.x
Subject(s) - juvenile delinquency , social control , criminology , rural area , social control theory , differential (mechanical device) , sample (material) , informal social control , psychology , sociology , social psychology , demographic economics , political science , economics , social science , law , engineering , chemistry , chromatography , aerospace engineering
Official statistics and numerous sociological studies indicate that rural areas generate lower rates of delinquency than do urban areas. This study attempts to explain these differential rates by drawing on the social control theory of Hirschi. Questionnaires were administered to a rural and an urban juvenile detention center population to investigate both extent of delin‐quency involvement and degree of commitment to five institutional orders: family, church, school, peers, and formal authority. As hypothesized, the rural sample reported significantly less delinquent activity than the urban sample. Control theory also received support from the data. A strong inverse relationship was found between commitment and delinquency. When intro‐duced as a control variable, commitment specified the original relationship between locality and delinquency. The specified relationships were strongest for rural youth with high commitment and for urban youth with low commitment.