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Personal religiosity has been identified as a protective factor against juvenile delinquency. However, the influence of familial religiosity on delinquent behavior is less known. This study addresses this gap by investigating how family participation in organizational religious activities is related to delinquent involvement in early adolescence. Based on a structural equation modeling analysis of data from two waves of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97), this study finds an overall negative association between familial religiosity and juvenile delinquency. It also finds that much of the relationship between familial religiosity and juvenile delinquency is mediated by the mechanisms of marital relationship, parenting practice, and attachment to parents.

Mediation analysis in child and adolescent development research is possible using large secondary data sets. This article provides an overview of two statistical methods commonly used to test mediated effects in secondary analysis: multiple regression and structural equation modeling (SEM). Two empirical studies are presented to illustrate the respective circumstances in which the two methods are most useful. One study examines the mediated effect of parents' social capital on parent involvement in Head Start programs through parent-child bond. The other study assesses the mediating effects of structured routine activities, delinquent association, and prosocial belief on the relationship between religiosity and juvenile delinquency. (Contains 4 tables and 3 figures.)

This article assesses the differences in educational deficiencies between a statewide sample of delinquent students and a matched sample of nondelinquent students. Employing a research design that controls for a series of relevant individual and school variables, the study's findings document that delinquent students are characterized by a series of disproportionate educational deficiencies as compared to their nondelinquent student counterparts. Delinquent students were found to attain lower grade point averages, have poorer school attendance records, be retained more often in the same grade, and receive more school disciplinary actions. The article concludes that these documented educational deficiencies may play an integral role in the process of delinquency and, therefore, pose a number of public policy implications in relation to the prevention and treatment of delinquency.

This study examines the differences in parenting practices and their effects on juvenile delinquency between China and the United States. Its principal goal is to gain a more culturally relevant understanding of the possible ways of preventing delinquency through the improvement of parenting styles. The analyses were based on a nationally representative sample of American adolescents and a probability sample of Chinese adolescents in the same age group. To increase data comparability, the study employed similar measures of parenting practices and delinquency in the two samples. The analysis indicated that the American adolescents perceived a higher level of parental responsiveness but a lower level of parental control than did the Chinese adolescents. While parental responsiveness was inversely related to delinquency in both samples, parental control predicted lower delinquency only in the U.S. sample. Moreover, the negative relationship between parental monitoring and delinquency was stronger among the American adolescents than among the Chinese adolescents. The results underscore the need to consider cultural differences when assessing the impact of parenting practices on delinquency, or when applying the research findings to delinquency prevention programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior research has generated inconsistent results about the relationship between drug use and crime. To improve on previous research, this study focuses on drug use disorders as a predictor of crime and offending behavior specifically related to drug use to measure the potential impact of drug abuse and dependence. Through the analysis of data collected from 930 male and female drug users receiving mandatory treatment in two drug detoxification centers in China, the current study finds that drug use disorders significantly predict drug-related crime. The results provide an empirical validation of the findings from the West that drug use disorders and crime are positively related. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Personal religiosity has been identified as a protective factor against juvenile delinquency. However, the influence of familial religiosity on delinquent behavior is less known. This study addresses this gap by investigating how family participation in organizational religious activities is related to delinquent involvement in early adolescence. Based on a structural equation modeling analysis of data from two waves of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97), this study finds an overall negative association between familial religiosity and juvenile delinquency. It also finds that much of the relationship between familial religiosity and juvenile delinquency is mediated by the mechanisms of marital relationship, parenting practice, and attachment to parents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using data obtained from 165 mass murders in China, this research examines the crime of mass murder through a routine activities perspective as it relates to the location of where they occur (rural areas), while taking into consideration the motivation (revenge and profit), and most common weapon (knife) used. This adds to the literature on mass murders and routine activities theory from an area (China) where little academic research has been published regarding this crime. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]