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Structural Similarity of Processes Generating Criminal and Analogous Behaviors

NCJ Number
173580
Journal
Criminology Volume: 36 Issue: 3 Dated: August 1998 Pages: 633-666
Author(s)
R Paternoster; R Brame
Date Published
1998
Length
34 pages
Annotation
This study examines the empirical association between a specific self-control concept measured at ages 8-9 and self-reported involvement in a variety of criminal and analogous acts during adolescence.
Abstract
One broad-domain theory contends that a variable called "self-control" can account for variation in all kinds of criminal conduct as well as variation in many acts that are "analogous" to crime in some ways but are not actually criminal (e.g., smoking, drinking, involvement in accidents, gambling, and loitering). Using data from the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development, this study attempted to define operationally the concept of self-control with a set of variables measured at ages 8-9. The study then examined the empirical association between this self-control measure and self-reported involvement in a variety of criminal and analogous acts during adolescence. Self-control was associated with both outcomes and the strength of the association was approximately equal. However, the covariance between criminal and analogous behaviors could not be explained entirely by variations in self-control, suggesting that factors other than time-stable differences in criminal propensity do matter for criminal and legal, but risky, behavior. Notes, figure, tables, references, appendix

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