This paper focuses on crime in American society, with emphasis on the causes of crime and delinquent behavior. A brief overview of numerous theories which have been advanced to explain causes of crime begins the paper. Among the theories discussed are those based on alcoholism, poverty, and perceived social injustice. Maintaining that these…

The purpose of this study was to compare the relative merits of two causal models in which moral reasoning, sex, and social class were used to predict classroom behavior problems. Model A implied that conduct problems would decline linearly as moral maturity increased. Model B implied that the lowest as well as the highest levels of moral maturity…

This paper applies principles of situational leadership theory to the management of student behavior problems. First, it summarizes situational leadership, noting the theory's premise that leaders must consider two important factors to gain acceptance and compliance in managing people--the maturity level of the individuals and the nature of the…

Responses of 127 rural high school sophomores and juniors were used to examine 3 factors influencing judgments and disciplinary decisions of adolescent peer juries. The factors were levels of moral reasoning, gender of offender, and severity of the offender's act. Subjects first responded to a questionnaire testing moral development. The 113…

The five observational studies reported in this paper provide consistent and interlocking testimony for the view that moral events differ qualitatively from social conventional events, and that these two aspects of the social world are associated with qualitatively differing individual-environment interactions. Each of the five studies focuses on…

A replication of earlier research, this study investigates the relationship between moral reasoning and classroom conduct. According to Kohlberg (1978), children who reason at preconventional levels (Stages 1 and 2) would be likely to disrupt a classroom, while children who reason at the conventional levels (Stages 3 and 4) should cause less…

Individuals such as Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. successfully employed nonviolent strategies to attain significant political goals. Despite the implications of these achievements, psychologists rarely have studied predispositions to nonviolent behavior empirically. This study investigated the relationships among nonviolent…