Date on Master's Thesis/Doctoral Dissertation

5-2011

Document Type

Master's Thesis

Degree Name

M.S.

Department (Legacy)

Department of Justice Administration

Committee Chair

Higgins, George Edward

Author's Keywords

Race; Black; Trajectory; African American; Moffitt; Group based

Subject

African American men--Social conditions; Crime and race; Peer pressure

Abstract

The initial goals of this study include locating and identifying the taxonomic groups mentioned in Moffitt's (1993) (i.e. life-course persistent offenders, adolescent-limited offenders) using data from the National Longitudinal Survey 1997 (NLSY97). Further, this study compares the social demographics with the predictions of Moffitt (1993,1994) as her theory describes race, particularity those of African-American offenders. This study also examines the role of parental and peer relationships and their effect on the offender disparity among the typologies defined by Moffitt (1993). This study explores one hypothesis: there is a relationship between social bonds, particularly peer association and admittance into Moffitt's (1993) trajectory groups. The results of this study find that of the variables tested, peer relationships are particularly influential in predicting criminality. These findings support prior research on delinquent peer group association and criminality (Bjerregard & Lizotte, 1995; Dishion, Patterson, & Griesler, 1994; Patterson, 1993; Patterson, Dishion & Yoerger, 2000; Lacourse et aI., 2003).

Download

Share

COinS