Poverty and Delinquency: A Theoretical Review.

One of 52 theoretical papers on school crime and its relation to poverty, this chapter reviews the major cultural and structural statements on the relationship between poverty and delinquency. The value stretch perspective, stemming from research on family values and on aspirations is introduced in order to challenge and clarify the basic works of Cohen, Cloward and Ohlin, Miller, and Sykes and Matza. This analysis points out that further clarification is needed of the value modifications predicted for those living in poverty. Only then can hypotheses, stemming from alternative theoretical models of the etiology of delinquency among low income youth be tested. Containment and control theory is also included in the review, and incorporated into a theoretical paradigm that tentatively summarizes the literature on the etiology of male gang delinquency. The major elements of the paradigm deal with the community's limited ability to provide opportunities to achieve in accordance with the dominant values of society; the family's and the community's limited ability to maintain external controls over young people; and the family's limited ability to instill effective internal controls. (Author/MLF)