An examination of types of delinquency through path analysis

Relationships between father's occupation, delinquent peer association, tendency to neutralize, and self-reported delinquency are explored in a path model. Self-reported delinquency are categorized into Minor, Predatory, and Aggressive delinquency. The effect of this division is analyzed among Mexican Americans and Anglo college students (N=694). The structure of the resulting path models remained similar across these subsamples, although there was some variation in the strength of the relationships. The effect of father's occupation was minimal. The strongest relationships were between neutralization and delinquency, controlling for delinquent peers and for father's occupation, which decreased as the seriousness of the delinquency increased. Additionally, neutralization was more strongly related to delinquency among Anglos than among Mexican Americans, explaining 39% of the variation in delinquency among Anglos, but only 28% among Mexican Americans. Association with delinquent peers, however, was more strongly related to delinquency among Mexican Americans.