The literature review suggests that several variables are related to juvenile delinquency: severe parental punishment and parental attitudes of rejection, punitiveness, and ambivalence. In addition, family disruption characterizes most cases of juvenile delinquency. However, various studies of self-admitted delinquent behavior all failed to associate socioeconomic status and juvenile delinquency. Further studies linked parental brutality or child abuse to both adolescent homicide and violence. Moreover, the relationship between socioeconomic status, as a cultural variable, and child-rearing remains unclear. But with some exceptions, ethnicity (both as race and as national origin) has been linked to reliable differences in child-rearing practices. New directions for research suggested include contextual studies of black adolescents and studies focusing on the whole family as the basic unit of analysis. Tables and a 63-item reference list are included. (Author abstract modified.)