U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government, Department of Justice.

NCJRS Virtual Library

The Virtual Library houses over 235,000 criminal justice resources, including all known OJP works.
Click here to search the NCJRS Virtual Library

Delinquency in a Birth Cohort in Philadelphia Pennsylvania, 1945-1963 - Individual File

NCJ Number
103945
Author(s)
M E Wolfgang; R Figlio; T Sellin
Date Published
1986
Length
47 pages
Annotation
After describing the study features and methodology of an analysis of a cohort of 9,944 boys born in 1945 who lived in Philadelphia from ages 10 to 18, this manual presents the variable description list and the codebook for the individual file.
Abstract
The study focused on the date of the subjects' first contacts with the police, whether they desisted from or persisted in further delinquent acts, the extent of harm in the delinquent acts, and whether the seriousness of delinquent activities increased or decreased with age. Data were obtained from school records and records of the police department's juvenile aid division. The two files used were an individual file and an offense file. The individual file was compiled from school records and contains information such as parents' country of origin, intelligence scores, and number of unexcused absences. The offense file contains detailed information on the offenses committed by the subjects. The manual discusses data collection procedures, file structure, weighting, information processing, and codebook information. The variable list and the codebook cover only the individual file. Appended glossary, frequency distributions, and confidence interval information.