Chapter 9
DELINQUENCY AND THE FAMILY
n Myths of the Family
n family as a “haven in a heartless world”
n stable and harmonious family of the past
n the monolithic family form
n an undifferentiated family experience
n family breakdown as the cause of social problems
Family in Contemporary Society
n Despite talk about the importance of “family values,” recent policies have done more harm than good for families
n vacation time for workers has been reduced
n workers put in more hours per year than their European counterparts
n maternity leave is almost non-existent
n “contact time” parents have with their children has declined by about 40% since the 1960s
n Consequently children are less supervised than most other nations
n All sorts of services reduced (school lunches, food stamps, etc.)
Multiple Marginality
n A term used by James Diego Vigil to describe the context of gangs and their families in LA
n Consists of multiple stressors, including unemployment, low wages and broken homes
Supervision of children
n not merely an independent variable that causes delinquency but also as a dependent variable
n the degree to which children are supervised may vary according to such factors as
n number of children in the home
n the number of rooms in the home
n the type of residence the home is (e.g., government housing project versus single-family residence)
n family income
n presence of a father
n children spend more unsupervised time in the streets with other similarly situated youths
The Broken Home
n Two key concepts:
n Structure of the family (“broken home,” size, income, etc.)
n nature of relationships within the family (parental conflicts, parent-child relationships, and methods of discipline and supervision)
n Homes broken by divorce has always been a major issues in delinquency research, dating all the way back to the Glueck’s studies in the 1930s and 40s
n Delinquents twice as likely as non-delinquents to come from “broken homes”
n May be because they used official statistics
n Could be a reflection of a court bias against kids from single-parent families
Single-parent families
n Especially problematic because most are headed by women who are much more likely to be poor and family income is the strongest predictor of adolescent “outcomes”
n http://www.kidscount.org/datacenter/compare_results.jsp?i=722
Maternal Factors
n three “maternal factors” associated with the chance of a child living in poverty and a child being in the lower half of his class at school
n Mother was a teenager when she had child
n Mother was not married
n Mother dropped out of high school
n Note that the probability of being poor and in the bottom half of class at school increased as more variables were present
n If all 3 factors were present = 79% lived in poverty and 58% in bottom half of class at school
n If 2 factors present = 48% and 53% respectively
n If 1 factor present = 26% and 47%
n If none of these factors were present = 8% and 30%
Family Relationships
n This refers to interaction, affection, supervision, and discipline on the part of the parents
n Glueck’s study found the following key variables crucial:
n Over-strict, erratic, threatening or lax discipline by parents
n Low parental supervision
n Parental rejection/lack of affection toward the child;
n Weak emotional attachment to the parents or the overall cohesiveness of the family.
Models of family functioning
n neglect model - child-parent involvement and parental supervision
n poor supervision and spending little time with children best predict delinquency
n conflict model - discipline practices and parent-child and child-parent rejection
n aggressive behavior, poor discipline, a rejecting attitude toward the child rejection best predicts serious forms of delinquency, although inconsistent and overly strict, physical discipline is strongly predictive of delinquency;
n parental deviance and attitudes model - parental criminality and deviant attitudes
n parents approve of, ignore, or encourage a child's deviance; parental criminality is one of the strongest predictors of serious delinquency
n disruption model - marital conflict and the absence of one or both parents
n conflict is more strongly related to delinquency than a broken home per se
n If several of these models occur simultaneously (e.g., there could be neglect along with conflict) we have the best predictor of delinquency
The “socializing variables"
n Affection
n supervision
n discipline
n Families that have the greatest amount of affection toward their children and who have the highest degree of supervision and discipline are often called by researchers “cohesive” families
Parenting Styles
n Authoritarian style
n high demands placed upon children with low responsiveness to their needs
n such parents are very rigid and controlling in their parenting
n emphasis on using punishment or the threat of punishment to get their children to behave in a certain way
n authoritative style
n high expectations, firm enforcement of rules and standards, and open communication with children
n associated with better psychological development, school grades, greater self-reliance, and lower levels of delinquent behavior among adolescents
n permissive/indulgent style
n "laissez faire" attitude where rules are either non-existent or inconsistently enforced
n methods of discipline are more passive
n make few demands on their children, giving them too much freedom to do as they please
n disengaged/indifferent style
n Unresponsive to their children and only minimally demanding of them.
n Children from such families are virtually ignored "except when they make demands, which are usually responded to with hostility and explosions
n Kids from authoritative families are the least delinquent, while those from authoritarian and permissive families are the most delinquent