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Cohabitation, Marriage and Delinquency: The Significance of Family Environment

NCJ Number
175008
Journal
Australian and New Zealand Journal of Criminology Volume: 30 Issue: 2 Dated: August 1997 Pages: 187-199
Author(s)
S Sarantakos
Date Published
1997
Length
13 pages
Annotation
This paper uses Australian data to examine the relationship between parental lifestyles and family environments, on the one hand, and occurrence, type, and frequency of delinquency on the other hand.
Abstract
These data, collected by means of interviewing, relate to part of a longitudinal study that involved 512 children. A total of 233 were children of cohabiting couples and 279 of married couples. Data were collected by means of interviews with children conducted during the third stage of the project. The purpose of the interviews was to ascertain the presence, type, nature, and frequency of occurrence of any offenses committed by the respondents, as well as the quality of family environments in which children lived, such as family stability and integration, parental attitudes, security, acceptance or rejection and family conflicts, and their association with delinquency. Delinquency was defined as a criminal act committed by a juvenile. The findings show that there are proportionally more offenders coming from families of cohabiting couples than from families of married couples. Also, there are proportionately more offenders who become recidivists coming from families of cohabiting couples than of married couples. Finally, the family environments of the majority of offenders were marked by instability, low integration, hostile parental attitudes, domestic violence, parental conflicts, and parental indifference. 8 tables and 41 references