Attitude Toward Delinquency Survey

Abstract

The Attitude Toward Delinquency Survey is a specialized psychometric instrument designed to systematically measure an individual’s general attitudes toward and cognitive acceptance of engaging in illegal or non-compliant actions. Primarily utilized within the fields of criminology and developmental psychology, this tool helps researchers gauge the normative beliefs held by youth concerning various levels of misconduct, ranging from minor disobedience to serious violent acts.

By quantifying the degree of agreement or disagreement with statements describing various delinquent behaviors, the survey provides crucial insight into the cognitive and psychological precursors of future misconduct. It is particularly noted for its application in large-scale, longitudinal projects, such as the Pittsburgh Youth Study (PYS), where it serves as a robust predictor of persistent offending among juvenile offenders.

Keywords

Delinquency, Juvenile offenders, Antisocial behavior, Youth attitudes, Behavioral acceptance, Criminology, Pittsburgh Youth Study, Self-report measure, Psychological assessment.

Authors

Rolf Loeber, David P. Farrington, Magda Stouthamer-Loeber, Wim B. Van Kammen.

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Purpose

The fundamental purpose of the Attitude Toward Delinquency Survey is to systematically quantify the extent to which respondents accept, rationalize, or minimize the perceived wrongness of various delinquent behaviors. This measurement establishes a critical baseline understanding of how individuals, especially adolescents and youth, internally perceive the severity and appropriateness of criminal and norm-violating actions.

The resulting data is crucial for informing both policy makers and practitioners engaged in prevention and intervention strategies. By accurately identifying populations or individuals who demonstrate a high acceptance of delinquency, resources can be targeted more effectively. This predictive capability is essential for reducing future rates of misconduct and improving overall public safety outcomes. Furthermore, the scale offers a window into the cognitive mechanisms, such as moral disengagement or normalization, that often precede overt antisocial behavior.

Construct

The scale is designed to measure the psychological construct known as Attitude Toward Delinquency. This construct is formally defined as the cognitive and affective framework an individual holds concerning the moral acceptability of engaging in criminal or norm-violating behaviors. The core theoretical premise supporting this scale is that a person’s subjective opinion regarding the moral wrongness of an act is a strong and reliable predictor of their actual likelihood to commit that act.

The survey specifically assesses this construct across two primary dimensions, providing a comprehensive view of acceptance:

• General Attitudes: This dimension covers the broad acceptance or rejection of rule-breaking behavior across various contexts.
• Specific Acceptability: This dimension focuses on tolerance levels for specific, graded delinquent acts, which include behaviors such as minor vandalism, theft of varying monetary values, and physical violence.

The final aggregated score reflects a continuum of behavioral acceptance. A higher score signifies a greater normalization and acceptance of delinquent behavior, which is widely recognized in developmental criminology as a significant risk factor for persistent offending.

Validity

While specific, detailed psychometric coefficients (such as convergent or discriminant validity) are not provided in the primary source material, the scale’s extensive utilization in highly authoritative, longitudinal research strongly implies established validity. Specifically, its long-term application within the Pittsburgh Youth Study (PYS) serves as compelling evidence of its utility.

The items included in the survey are derived directly from observed patterns of youth misconduct, ensuring strong content validity, meaning the instrument adequately samples the domain of delinquent attitudes it intends to measure. Due to its consistent predictive utility in major developmental studies of crime, the scale is presumed to demonstrate robust criterion validity, showing significant correlation with both self-reported delinquent acts and officially recorded criminal behavior over time.

Reliability

Explicit reliability coefficients, such as Cronbach’s Alpha for internal consistency or test-retest reliability scores, are not detailed in the available description. However, psychometric instruments selected for use within rigorous, long-term, high-stakes research projects like the Pittsburgh Youth Study are invariably subjected to thorough psychometric scrutiny prior to adoption.

Therefore, it is assumed that the Attitude Toward Delinquency Survey possesses adequate internal consistency and stability across time to reliably measure the respondent’s attitudes toward misconduct across its diverse range of items.

Factor Analysis

Information concerning the specific factor structure of the Attitude Toward Delinquency Survey is absent from the immediate source content. In the development of similar psychological scales, factor analysis is a standard procedure used to confirm whether the survey items cluster into distinct subscales (e.g., separating acceptance of property crime from acceptance of violent behavior) or if they primarily reflect a single, unitary construct.

Based on the broad range of behaviors covered by the items—including property damage, theft across varying values, and interpersonal violence—the scale most likely measures a dominant, general factor of antisocial orientation. It is possible that supplementary subfactors correlating to the severity or specific type of delinquent act could also emerge upon detailed analysis.

Instrument

Test Type: Self-report questionnaire / Attitude Scale

Format: Pencil and paper survey administered to groups or individuals.

Language Available: English (Primary application language).

Population Group: Youth and adolescents transitioning into early adulthood who are at risk for, or currently engaging in, delinquency.

Age Group: Youth in general. The survey has been specifically applied to male students starting in grades 1, 4, and 7, and tracked longitudinally into adulthood, demonstrating suitability for a broad developmental range.

Population Details: Originally utilized within the Pittsburgh Youth Study (PYS), concentrating on urban, predominantly male cohorts to investigate the developmental trajectory of antisocial behavior and co-occurring mental health issues.

Test Methodology: Respondents are asked to rate their level of agreement regarding how “wrong” specific delinquent actions are, utilizing a four-point Likert-type scale (ranging from Very Wrong to Not Wrong At All). For scoring purposes, all items are typically reverse-coded before summation. This methodology ensures that a higher total score on the scale denotes a greater normalization and acceptance of delinquent behavior.

Keywords

Attitude measurement, Youth development, Longitudinal studies, Pittsburgh Youth Study, Criminal risk factors, Behavioral assessment, Self-report measures, Juvenile justice, Juvenile offenders.

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Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: N/A (Not provided in source material)

Affiliation Email addresses: N/A (Not provided in source material)

Correspondence Address: Correspondence details related to the 1998 publication source: Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

Permissions: The scale is widely cited and utilized in academic research. It is closely associated with the publicly funded Pittsburgh Youth Study, suggesting broad, non-commercial research access. No specific commercial restrictions are noted in the available documentation.

Fees and Requirements: None noted in the source material.

Test Year: The scale was published and detailed in the 1998 foundational text by Loeber et al., stemming from ongoing research within the Pittsburgh Youth Study which commenced prior to this date.

Reference’s

The primary source detailing the Attitude Toward Delinquency Survey instrument is:

Loeber, R., Farrington, D.P., Stouthamer-Loeber, M., & Van Kammen, W.B. (1998). Antisocial behavior and mental health problems: explanatory factors in childhood and adolescence. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

The instrument itself can be found on page 33 of Measuring Violence-Related Attitudes, Behaviors, and Influences Among Youths: A Compendium of Assessment Tools. The original PDF of the Compendium can be downloaded here: http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/YV_Compendium.pdf

Additional resources, potentially containing full text or further details, include:

• http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED486261.pdf (PDF document)
• http://oregonmentors.org/library/evaluationtools/view/10/

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Items of the Attitude Toward Delinquency Survey

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way.

The response options for these items are:

• Very wrong = 3
• A little wrong = 2
• Wrong = 1
• Not wrong at all = 0

Attitude Toward Delinquency—Pittsburgh Youth Study

1. Skip school without an excuse?
2. Lie, disobey or talk back to adults such as parents, teachers, or others?
3. Purposely damage or destroy property that did not belong to him?
4. Steal something worth less than $5?
5. Steal something worth $50?
6. Steal something worth $100?
7. Go into or try to go into a building to steal something?
8. Go joyriding, that is, take a motor vehicle such as a car or motorcycle for a ride or drive without the owner’s permission?
9. Hit someone with the idea of hurting that person?
10. Attack someone with a weapon or with the idea of seriously hurting that person?
11. Use a weapon, force, or strong-arm methods to get money or things from people?