Much of the research testing Moffitt's taxonomy of antisocial behavior has
concentrated on life-course-persistent as opposed to adolescence-limited of
fending. For Moffitt, adolescence-limited delinquency occurs near puberty a
s a function of factors endemic to the peer social context of adolescence,
including the realization that adolescents are physically mature enough to
engage in adult-like behaviors, but are forbidden to engage in such acts be
cause of their biological age. Using data from the Youth-in-Transition surv
ey, we find that adolescence-limited delinquency is characterized by involv
ement in rebellious but not aggressive delinquency. Further, rebellious del
inquency is accounted for by the interaction between early maturity and the
autonomy aspects of peer activities.