NCJ Number
101978
Journal
British Journal of Criminology Volume: 26 Issue: 2 Dated: (April 1986) Pages: 129-146
Date Published
1986
Length
18 pages
Annotation
To examine the relationship between various measures of personality, intelligence, and performance and later juvenile delinquency and drug use, questionnaire and interview data were collected for 150 early adolescent boys on entry to Ontario training schools in 1971-72.
Abstract
Tests also were administered to a nondelinquent sample of 196 public school boys. Followup interviews were conducted with 85 percent of the training school sample 3.5 years later when the boys were 16.5 years old. Analyses of data indicate that test scores at initial testing predicted some aspects of later adolescent behavior but not recidivism (as measured by self-reported delinquency and subsequent time in correctional institutions). Out of the array of criteria examined, the most predictable were alienation and frequency of marijuana, alcohol, tobacco, and LSD use. Individual differences that played the most substantial role in the prediction of opposition to authority, alienation, and drug use were the personality factors of extraversion, fluid intelligence, lack of acculturation, and independence. Limitations in the use of ability tests, personality questionnaires and personality objective performance tests in the prediction of later delinquency are considered. 40 references.