Causes and Correlates of Delinquency Program

• NCJ Number: 175561
• Author(s): K Browning; D Huizinga; R Loeber; T P Thornberry
• Date Published: April 1999
• Length: 2 pages
• Agencies: OJJDP

Annotation

This fact sheet summarizes the research design and samples used in the Program of Research on the Causes and Correlates of Delinquency, which includes the Denver Youth Survey in Colorado, the Pittsburgh Youth Study in Pennsylvania, and the Rochester Youth Development Study in New York.

Abstract

The program was initiated in 1986 by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention to improve the understanding of serious delinquency, violence, and drug use by examining how youth develop in the context of family, school, peers, and community. The projects are all longitudinal analyses that involve repeated contacts with youth during a substantial portion of their developmental youth. Researchers conduct individual personal interviews with inner-city youths considered at high risk for involvement in delinquency and drug abuse. Information is also collected from primary caretakers, teachers, police, courts, schools, and social service agencies. The Denver Youth Survey is based on a random sample of 1,527 male and female children and youths who live in high-risk neighborhoods. The Pittsburgh sample includes 1,517 males initially selected randomly from first, fourth, and seventh grades. The Rochester sample consists of 1,000 males and females who were in the 7th and 8th grades in public schools during spring 1988. The Causes and Correlates program has the largest shared-measurement approach every used in juvenile delinquency research. Discussion of sources of further information on this and related topics