This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Evans, R. C. Articles by Hodgkinson, F. P. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Evans, R. C. Articles by Hodgkinson, F. P. Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Self-Concept Comparisons of English and American Delinquents

Department of Criminal Justice, Valdosta State University, Valdosta, Georgia 31698, U.S.A.

Gary D. Copus

Criminal Justice Program, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Fairbanks, Alaska 99701, U.S.A

Thomas E. Sullenberger

Department of Sociology, Social Work, & Criminal Justice, Southeastern Louisiana University, Hammond, Louisiana 70402

F. Peter Hodgkinson

University of Westminster, School of Law, 4 Red Lion Square, London 4C1R 4SR, England

The Tennessee Self-Concept Scale (TSCS) was administered to 223 United States and 180 English institutionalized juvenile offenders. In a crosscultural comparison of the subjects on the six TSCS empirical scales, both groups present indications of significantly more psychopathology on five of the six scales than nondelinquents. When the two groups are contrasted, the U.S. group is found to score significantly higher, overall, in psychopathology than the English delinquents. Discriminant function analysis identified two of the six empirical psychopathology scales, Personal Integration and Personality Disorder, capable of distinguishing the subjects by country. Analyses of the data suggest that recent-past and current conservative policies governing official responses to youth crime fail because they tend to address delinquency as if the underlying causes are constitutional. Rather, this data suggest that the differences found between the two groups are cultural in nature.

International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, Vol. 37, No. 4, 297-313 (1993)
DOI: 10.1177/0306624X9303700403


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				C. D. Tori and T. Emavardhana The Psychology of Thai Delinquent Youth: A Study of Self-Perception, Ego Defenses, and Personality Traits Int J Offender Ther Comp Criminol, December 1, 1998; 42(4): 305 - 318. [Abstract]