Family Structure's Impact on Juvenile Delinquency

Family Structure and Delinquency

According to Price & Kunz, (2003) family structure is a major factor in explaining delinquency. The research aimed at finding a link between cohabiting and other family types with delinquency (Price & Kunz, 2003). They made an important finding that adolescents from cohabiting families are at greater odds of engaging in non-violent delinquency compared to those from biological-parent families. The findings contradict the findings of other studies that show that that youth from broken families are likely to engage themselves in delinquent activities. For example, in one longitudinal study by Juby and Farrington, (2003) they found out that children especially boys who were from non-intact families portrayed negative behaviors compared to those that were from intact families (Juby & Farrington, 2001). Moreover, Prince & Kunz, (2003) performed a meta-analysis involving divorce and juvenile delinquency. They also made a finding that children from divorced homes have a high rate of delinquency compared to those from intact homes.

Some people have challenged the causal relationship between delinquency and family structures arguing that

However, the question whether such an effect is universal remains unanswered. In a study by Kierkus & Hewitt, (2009) they examined the link between non-traditional family structures and delinquency based on several variables such as gender, race, age, SES, family size and place of residence. They made an interesting finding that age and family size impacts the relationship between family structures, crime, and delinquency (Kierkus & Hewitt, 2009). More specifically, the old adolescents and those from larger families were at a significant risk for participating in juvenile