To Delinquency and Back

Abstract

This article describes and analyzes the movement from cotiventional to delinquent behavior of very young boys, which was followed by their movement from delitnquent to conventional behavior. Forty-eight boys livitng in a Jerusalem slum were longitudinally followed for three years. The article describes how boys from highly problematic families, with delinquent older brothers, were attracted to delinquent gatherings atnd subsequently indulged in delinqueticy. After a local rabbi created a group devoted to Jewish religious studies, however, about hialf of them quit the delinquent gatherings, joined the rabbi s group, and ceased delinquent behavior. The boys 'movement to deliniquency is explained in terms of an integration of the control theory and the differential-association theory of delitiquency, and so is their movement back to conventionial behavior. Boys from non-highly problematic families were foutid to exhibit different patterns of behavior, which are explained withlin the same theoretical framework The practical implicatiotns of the rabbi s treatment of delinquency are discussed.