Citation

Tittle CR, Villemez WJ, Smith DA. Am. Sociol. Rev. 1978; 43(5): 643-353.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1978, American Sociological Association)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Thirty-five studies examining the relationship between social class and crime/delinquency are reduced to comparable statistics using instances where the relationship was studied for specific categories of age, sex, race, place of residence, data type, or offense as units of analysis. The findings from 363 instances are summarized and patterns are identified. The overall results show only a slight negative relationship between class and criminality, with self-report studies reflecting lower associations than official statistics studies. Moreover, analysis demonstrates a clear historical decline in magnitude of association to the point where both self-report and official statistics studies done in the current decade find no class variation. This historical trend is shown to be due to changes in the findings from studies using official statistics as indicators of criminality. Alternative interpretations are discussed, but all lead to serious doubts about the adequacy of theories of deviance that contain assumptions of class differences. (abstract Adapted from Source: American Sociological Review, 1978. Copyright © 1978 by the American Sociological Association)

Social Class
Class Factors
Sociocultural Factors
Socioeconomic Factors
Crime Causes
Delinquency Causes
Adult Crime
Adult Offender
Juvenile Crime
Juvenile Delinquency
Juvenile Offender
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