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SELF-REPORTED DELINQUENCY: A PILOT STUDY

NCJ Number
143785
Author(s)
J McQuoid
Date Published
1992
Length
55 pages
Annotation
Representatives from several European countries, the U.S., and Canada met under the auspices of the Dutch Ministry of Justice in 1988 to devise a standard instrument for measuring self-reported delinquency.
Abstract
The resulting questionnaire consisted of three parts: sociodemographic questions, 46 filter questions starting with frequent minor rule breaking and moving gradually toward more serious and violent offenses, and a series of questions related to each offender's characteristics. The questionnaire was tested on a sample of 310 Belfast students and results were analyzed in terms of frequency of offending, gender and educational differences, prevalence, type of schooling, association between offenses, age of onset, detection, and correlates of offending. The results showed that about 95 percent of the respondents, nearly half of them females, reported having committed at least one offense during their lives. Males were more likely to drive without a license, commit public disorder, and carry weapons; 75 percent of the sample had drunk alcohol underage. Only a very few young people reported deviant behavior; girls and those in full-time education reported deviance the least often. The more serious an offense, the more likely the youth had committed a wider range of crimes. There were no correlations between delinquency and employment status, living with parents, educational level, or hours playing sport. The predictors of criminal participation in nine offense categories were limited and consisted of age, sex, weekly income, living with parents, and age at first offense. 15 tables, 13 figures, 11 references, and 1 appendix