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Childhood Leisure Antecedents of Delinquency

NCJ Number
72126
Author(s)
S R Edwards
Date Published
1976
Length
70 pages
Annotation
This study sought to determine what types of leisure-related antecedents influenced delinquents and found that recreation in itself is not the answer to preventing juvenile delinquency.
Abstract
Data were collected and analyzed from personal interviews of 43 male juvenile delinquents at the California Youth Authority, Norwalk, Calif. Data were hand tabulated and the distribution of respondents' answers was transferred to charts and tables. Percentage breakdowns were used to explain the data. A preliminary study of the respondents' ages, races, and places of origin found that the average age was 16 and that half of the respondents were white. Most of the boys came from the Los Angeles area, 19 percent were from San Diego, and 12 percent were from the San Bernardino area. Also, data showed that 85 percent of the boys came from urban areas. Most of the boys (69.8 percent) had access to a playground within five blocks of their homes, but 39.5 percent indicated that they did not participate at the playground at all and some (16.3 percent) participated only occasionally. The most common complaint about the playground equipment was that it was oriented only toward very young children. It was also found that only a few of the boys said they had trouble getting along with the playground supervisor and only one boy reported having trouble getting along with his peers. In answer to questions about what the boys really enjoyed doing, responses indicated that the four most popular activities involved rights, girls, theft, and drugs. The study supported the null hypothesis that the childhood experiences of the delinquents in leisure time activities had been limited and the null hypothesis that the childhood recreation of the delinquents had no significant influence on later antisocial behavior. Tables, footnotes, and a bibliography of 14 references are provided. The interview instrument is appended. (Author abstract modified)