Abstract
The data for this study were obtained from a survey in Tallahassee, Florida in March of 1975. A stratifield cluster sampling technique was used to select approximately 1500 students from grades 6 though 12. A self-report technique was used to obtain the responses.
The model to be tested includes four variables: contact with police, perception of police, self-esteem, and delinquency. The issue addressed by the research concerns whether contacts with the police have any effect on delinquent behaviour and whether certain intervening variables (ie perception of police and self-esteem) have an effect in the causal process.
A comparison of the correlations between age and police contact and between age and delinquency shows that the latter set are much more strongly related than are the former set. This suggests that delinquency occurs more often later in the age cycle than does police contact. This finding is considered to lend support to the causal order. The path analysis shows that contact with police has a considerable effect on subsequent delinquent behaviour. The intervening variable “perception of police” is seen to indicate a more important causal path than does the route predicted by labelling theorists which involves self-esteem as an intervening factor. The total amount of variance explained by this path model is approximately 65%.
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