Search

Several studies have examined the factors associated with juvenile delinquency, but this literature remains limited largely because it has not moved beyond traditional factors generally and because of the lack of research conducted on minority--especially Hispanic--youth. This study seeks to overcome these two limitations by using data from a longitudinal study of 2,491 Hispanic (Puerto Rican) youth ages 5-13 (48.5% female) socialized in two different cultural contexts, Bronx, New York and San Juan, Puerto Rico, in an effort to examine the relationship between parental suicidality and offspring delinquency. Results indicate that while traditional risk/protective factors and parental mental health issues relate to delinquency in expected ways, youths whose parents attempted suicide engaged in more frequent and varied delinquency over time. Implications for theory and future research are addressed.

Although sex is one of the strongest correlates of crime, contentions remain regarding the necessity of sex-specific theories of crime. The current study examines delinquent trajectories across sex among Puerto Rican youth socialized in two different cultural contexts (Bronx, United States; and San Juan, Puerto Rico). Results indicate similar substantive offending trajectories across males and females within each cultural context, that males exhibit a higher frequency of offending and higher levels of risk factors for delinquency, and more similarities than differences in how risk/protective factors relate to patterns of offending across male versus female youth. Study limitations and implications for sex-specific criminological theories are also discussed. (Contains 6 tables, 4 figures and 7 notes.)

This study examined the trajectories of delinquency among Puerto Rican children and adolescents in two cultural contexts. Relying on data from the Boricua Youth Study, a longitudinal study of children and youth from Bronx, New York, and San Juan, Puerto Rico, a group-based trajectory procedure estimated the number of delinquency trajectories, whether trajectories differed across contexts, and the relation of risk and protective factors to each. Five trajectories fit the Bronx sample, and four fit the San Juan sample. Differences and similarities were observed. The Bronx sample had a higher rate of delinquency and sensation seeking and violence exposure strongly discriminated offender trajectories. In San Juan, the results were substantively the same. Thus, while the youth lived in different contexts, and the nature and level of delinquency varied across the sites, the effects of most risk factors were more similar than different. (Contains 6 tables, 2 figures, and 8 notes.)