SOCIAL CLASS, SCHOOL EXPERIENCE, AND DELINQUENCY

• Date: 01 May 1974
• Author: DEAN FREASE,F. LYNN RICHMOND,KENNETH POLK
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-9125.1974.tb00622.x
• Published date: 01 May 1974

Albert Cohen’s delinquency theory

is

vulnerable

to

demonstrations of

similar

qualities,

as well

as

similar

quantities,

of delinquency between

middle- and wrking-class groups.

In

analyses of questionnaire data

from

a high school male population,

no

significant differences in

incidence

of

delinquency emerge between classes.

No

significant

differences obtain between classes of delinquents

on

items rapping the

peer

or

subcultural dimensions Cohen considers particularly character-

istic of working-class delinquency. Finally, delinquency

is

shown to be

related to academic performance regardless of class.

Abrt

ract

0

SOCIAL CLASS, SCHOOL EXPERIENCE,

AND DELINQUENCY

KENNETH POLK

Department

of

Sociology

University

of

Oregon

DEAN FREASE

Department

of

Sociology

University

of

Calgary

F.

LYNN RICHMOND

Marion County Youth Study

University

of

Oregon

ocial class is the foundation on which many sociological

S

theories rest. In delinquency theory, a particularly per-

vasive tradition has been built on the ideas of Albert Cohen

(1

959,

originally published nearly twenty years ago.

Cohen’s basic proposition is that juvenile delinquency is

fundamentally a working-class phenomenon. In

his

view,

a

class-biased distribution

of

delinquency results from an

interaction between the educational system and the social-

AUTHORS

NOTE:

The reseorch

on

which this paper

is

based was supported by

funds granted by the National Institute of Mental Health (Grant

MH14806

“Maturational Reform and Rural Delinquency’

7).

CRIMINOLOGY,

VoI.

12

No.

1.

May

1974

01974

American Society

of

Criminology