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Crime in Moral and Social Contexts -- The American Society of Criminology, 1989 Presidential Address

NCJ Number
124035
Journal
Criminology Volume: 28 Issue: 1 Dated: (February 1990) Pages: 1-26
Author(s)
J McCord
Date Published
1990
Length
26 pages
Annotation
This address uses new information on a 1930s juvenile delinquency prevention program to offer insights into the social contexts of crime and research on the etiology of crime.
Abstract
The Cambridge-Somerville (MA) Youth Study had several unique features for its time: it randomly assigned boys to a treatment and a control group, it did not rely on volunteers, and it included well-behaved boys as well as those with problem behaviors. Evaluations conducted in 1948 and the late 1950s revealed no benefits from the program in terms of crime rates among the participants. A 1975 study, which traced the men, used questionnaires to determine whether the program had been helpful to them. Although two-thirds of the respondents felt the program had been helpful, analyses demonstrated that not only had the treatment program failed, but those who provided treatment and those who received it were not good judges of its effects. Studies of family variables suggests that the social context, including the incidence of paternal criminality, is related to criminal patterns. Treatment programs aimed at assisting families with child rearing tasks risk doing harm because of several factors: families are not easily changed, child rearing has enduring effects, and solutions to problems of collinearity depend on statistical procedures that confound reliability with predictability. Although empirical evidence cannot prove a particular theory, longitudinal studies can sort out cause from effect and the beneficial from the harmful. 5 tables, 10 figures, 20 references. (Author abstract modified)