THE EFFECTS OF SOCIAL AREA CHARACTERISTICS ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SOCIAL-CLASS AND DELINQUENCY

This article presents a replication and extension of Johnstone's (1978 ) work on the effects of social class and the social characteristics o f areas on delinquency. Using a sample of middle and junior high schoo l students from several cities around the United States, the analysis conducted by Johnstone, who used a sample of youths from Chicago, is r eplicated. The analysis conducted here is designed to test whether the manner in which social context affects the impact of social class on involvement in delinquency is consistent with a relative deprivation e xplanation. While the results of this study provide replicative suppor t for Johnstone's findings, it also was found that the pattern of resu lts provides more support for opportunity explanations of offending th an relative deprivation explanations. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.