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Youth & Society
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Socioeconomic Status, Economic Problems, and Delinquency

Robert Agnew

Emory University, bagnew{at}emory.edu

Shelley Keith Matthews

Emory University

Jacob Bucher

Emory University

Adria N. Welcher

Emory University

Corey Keyes

Emory University

Research indicates that the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and delinquency is not as strong as suggested by the leading crime theories. This article argues that such theories do not predict that SES in and of itself causes delinquency but rather that the economic problems associated with SES cause delinquency. Such problems include substantial changes in lifestyle due to lack of money and the inability to purchase needed goods and services. Further, it is argued that (a) the relationship between economic problems and delinquency is nonlinear, such that only the experience of several economic problems is associated with higher delinquency, and (b) the relationship between SES and economic problems is only moderate in size. Data from a nationally representative sample of adolescents support these arguments. These data help explain the weak-to-moderate relationship between SES and delinquency, and they direct attention to economic problems as a potentially important cause of delinquency.

Key Words: economic problems • strain • delinquency

This version was published on December 1, 2008

Youth & Society, Vol. 40, No. 2, 159-181 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/0044118X08318119
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