A growth mixture modeling (GMM) analysis of neutralization scores in 1,830 youth across six waves of data revealed evidence of a three-class model in which moral neutralization either increased (low accelerating), decreased (high decelerating), or remained the same (moderate stable) over time. Controlling for age, sex, race, group assignment, and…

Criminal activity is seasonal, peaking in the summer and declining through the winter. We provide the first evidence that arrests of children and reported crimes involving children follow a different pattern: peaking during the school year and declining in the summer. We use a regression discontinuity design surrounding the exact start and end…

Much of the existing research on adolescent firearm and weapon carrying lacks a theoretical framework. Relatedly, few studies have examined the relationship between weapon carrying and bullying victimization experienced at school, which has been established as a key strain in adolescence. The present study seeks to provide a partial test of…

The term and construct "school-to-prison" pipeline has been widely used by advocates, researchers, and policymakers to describe the relationship between school disciplinary practices and increased risk of juvenile justice contact. It has been unclear whether the construct is a useful heuristic or a descriptor of empirically validated…

The acquisition of credit card debt by college students has long been a topic of concern. This study explores relationships among debt, undesirable academic behaviors and cognitions, and academic performance, through surveys of 338 students in a public university, replicating two past measures of credit card debt and creating new measures of…

Few studies of inhalant use have examined a large number of predictors at the individual level, including risk and protective factors and delinquent behavior, while also taking into account contextual variables (such as school size and poverty rates). This exploratory study uses 8th grade data from a large-scale survey of students in Kentucky to…

Describes the relationship between school behaviors and youth characteristics in school, and referrals to juvenile authorities. Describes a strategy of using teacher nominations, school discipline referrals, and community arrest data to predict delinquent and violent behavior in youth. Outlines data from a group of socially maladjusted youth to…

This study of perceived social support and weapon possession surveyed 461 students in an urban middle school. Students who reported carrying weapons to school reported less overall or total perceived social support (from peers, parents, teachers, classmates, and school) than did their peers who did not carry weapons. Perceived social support was a…

In this prospective study, the authors predicted violence and homicide in 3 representative school samples (N = 1,517). Participants were part of a longitudinal, multiple cohort study on the development of delinquency in boys from late childhood to early adulthood in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Thirty-three participants were convicted of homicide,…

A survey of 266 juvenile offenders found 37.1 percent had been in special education, with most classified as having behavioral disorders or learning disabilities. Juveniles with special education experience were more likely to need corrective lenses, to have attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and to have taken medication for emotional…

This study attempted to evaluate H. J. Eysenck's antisocial behavior (ASB) hypothesis that proposes there is an antisocial temperament which, in interaction with socialization, intelligence, and achievement, puts an individual at significant risk for developing antisocial behavior. Evaluation of Eysenck's ASB hypothesis was conducted with 107…

This study investigated the role of an early educational intervention and child-, family-, peer-, and school-level predictors on court-reported juvenile delinquency. Data were provided from the Chicago Longitudinal Study, an ongoing investigation of the scholastic and social development of more than 1,500 low-income youths (93% of whom were…

Understanding and preventing high school failure is a national priority. Structural strain and general deviance theories attempt to explain late high school failure. The authors tested the hypotheses that general (vs. specific) deviance and academic competence mediate the relationships between structural strain factors (gender, ethnicity, and…