U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government, Department of Justice.

NCJRS Virtual Library

The Virtual Library houses over 235,000 criminal justice resources, including all known OJP works.
Click here to search the NCJRS Virtual Library

Theoretical and Empirical Foundations of the Continuing Racine Research on Delinquency and Crime

NCJ Number
112990
Author(s)
L W Shannon
Date Published
Unknown
Length
55 pages
Annotation
This paper summarizes the theoretical implications of five empirical studies related to delinquency and crime based upon longitudinal data obtained from Madison and Racine, Wis., beginning in 1956.
Abstract
The first study (1980) examined the relationship of juvenile delinquency to adult crime, and the second study (1982) considered the relationship of juvenile delinquency and adult crime to the changing ecological structure of the city. The third study (1984) examined the development of serious criminal careers and the delinquent neighborhood, followed by a fourth study (1986) that assessed the effects of sanctions on subsequent criminal behavior, particularly offense seriousness. The fifth project (1987) marked a return to the initial concern of predicting adult criminal behavior from juvenile delinquency, with a focus on the predictive power of police contact data and justice system responses to police contacts. The discussions support an integrated theory of delinquency and crime, which begins with the ecology of the city and cultural deviance, proceeds through the social structure and processes, and then adds social-psychological variables that account for differences occurring within groups in the larger structural framework. 8 tables, 155 references.