Socio-Economic Status and Delinquent Behavior: A Retest

Abstract

Some years ago F. Ivan Nye conducted a study in Washington in which he strongly questioned the traditional findings of a pre ponderance of delinquent behavior among the lower classes. Using self-reported behavior rather than official criteria, he found no sig nificant relationship between delinquent behavior and socio-economic status. The respondents in that study were the students of high schools in three small communities. The present paper reports a retest of the hypothesis of that study in an urban community. Using essentially the same procedure as the Nye study and employing Nye-Short delinquent behavior scale items and other items from that study, anonymous questionnaires were adminis tered to 992 junior high school students in a large Northeastern Ohio community. Delinquent behavior was self-reported, and socio- economic status was determined by employing the North-Hatt occupational prestige scale to rank the occupations of the respond ents' fathers. A number of significance tests revealed no significant differences in delinquent behavior by socio-economic status, and correlational analysis revealed no correlation between the two variables. The results confirmed those of the Nye study. Thus, those theories of delinquency positing a disproportionate amount of delinquent behavior in the lower socio-economic levels are again met with empirical contradiction, this time in a large city.