The Pittsburgh Youth Study

Crime is a fascinating component of any society. As tragic as the consequences may or may not be, there are many questions that arise when a crime occurs; particularly why do certain people commit the crimes that they commit? This week’s assignment somewhat touched upon that question by presenting three longitudinal studies (The Denver Youth Study, The Pittsburgh Youth Study & The Rochester Youth Study) that looked at the cause of crime amongst juvenile youth. The goal of these studies was to analyze causes as well as possibly identify correlations.

In summary the findings of each of the three studies identified that

“Between 14 and 17 percent of the youth were habitual offenders who accounted for 75 to 82 percent of the incidence of criminal violence.” (Lozada 2012)

Each of the studies commonly identified that most juvenile youth had a pattern of deviant and problematic behavior due to poor

The difference between each of the studies involved was the gender of the participants used. The Pittsburgh Study in particular only used male participants, while the other studies used some females (Lozada 2012). Mainly the participants amongst all three studies were male and I think it throws off the results. This ties into the weakness of the study because again the results aren’t quite representative. The strengths of the study come from the fact that each of the studies covered all basis for getting to know each the participants. The researchers were able to get accurate readings of each individual to be able to draw the conclusions that were drawn. If I were conducting this study, I would employ the same method to study the participants except I would’ve tried to make the sample of participants more representative and