A Descriptive and Comparative Cohort Analysis of High School Delinquency in a Small Town

Abstract

Police contact with two small, male high school cohorts from a rural county is described and cautiously com pared with police contacts in the larger, urban male cohort study by Wolfgang, Figlio and Sellin. High school-aged males in both studies seem to have similar characteristics, particularly in regard to the amount of "harm" inflicted by officially recorded acts. In the present study, about one boy in four has at least one officially recorded police contact during high school. Some juvenile justice policy implications (involving desistance rates) are discussed. The problems associated with cohort research based on official records and comparisons between cohorts are addressed.

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