Related Experiment Videos
Are within-individual causes of delinquency the same as between-individual causes?
David P Farrington1, Rolf Loeber, Yanming Yin
1Institute of Criminology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge. dpf1@cus.cam.ac.uk
Background:
Previous studies of the causes of delinquency have been based on between-individual correlations. This paper aims to study the causes of delinquency by comparing within-individual and between-individual correlations of risk factors with delinquency.
Method:
A total of 506 boys in the oldest sample of the Pittsburgh Youth Study were followed up in seven data waves between ages 13.8 and 17.8 on average.
Results:
Poor parental supervision, low parental reinforcement and low involvement of the boy in family activities were the most important causes of delinquency according to forward-lagged within-individual correlations. Poor housing was positively related to delinquency for boys living in bad neighbourhoods but not for boys living in good neighbourhoods.
Conclusions:
Forward-lagged within-individual correlations provide more valid information about the causes of delinquency than do between-individual correlations. Peer delinquency was the strongest correlate of delinquency according to between-individual correlations but was not a cause of delinquency according to forward-lagged within-individual correlations.