Using a substantive model hypothesizing certain structural relationships among the constructs of criminality, present socioeconomic status (SES), educational attainment, social strain, family status, and parental SES, the paper examines the computational characteristics of the two algorithms. The assessment includes measures of goodness of fit, as well as an examination of residual correlations and covariances. While LISREL IV seems to provide both more options in use, as well as a generally better fit to the data, PLS provides a comparable, highly correlated set of parameter estimates in considerably less computational time. Implications of these results are discussed. (Author abstract modified)