Moral reasoning and delinquent behaviour among students

In a sample of students, relationships between delinquency and moral reasoning scores--on Rest's (1975) DIT--were consistent with the view that these scores reflect political orientation rather than developmental differences. More serious delinquency was positively correlated with principled reasoning for females (P less than 0.05), and negatively with Stage 4 reasoning for males (P less than 0.02).