NCJ Number
183983
Editor(s)
D. Wayne Osgood
Date Published
1997
Length
308 pages
Annotation
These five papers from the 1996 Nebraska Symposium on Motivation focuses on motivation and juvenile delinquency, based on interdisciplinary research findings from the perspectives of clinical psychology, social psychology, psychiatry, criminal justice, and sociology.
Abstract
The first paper uses the writings of philosophers from the ancient Greeks to modern linguistic philosophers to examine what it means to be motivated to engage in delinquency and the relationships between explanation, blame, and free will. The analysis proposes a construct theory of motivation for crime; this theory gives a prominent role to linguistic socialization. The second paper develops a framework that encompasses causal factors ranging from the social organization of communities and schools to behavioral genetics and hyperactivity. The discussion also considers the complexity posed by the heterogeneous forms that delinquency takes. The third paper focuses on age of onset as a fundamental basis for distinguishing more serious delinquency from less serious delinquency and explore the causes of later-onset delinquency. The fourth paper applies the social psychology of interdependency to the problem of violence, construing violence as coercive attempts at social influence. The final chapter considers delinquency as regarded by psychological and sociological researchers. Figures, tables, chapter reference lists, and subject and author indexes