EXPLAINING THE ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE-DELINQUENCY RELATIONSHIP*

doi:10.1111/j.1745-9125.2006.00050.x

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Wiley InterScience

Criminology

Volume 44 Issue 2, Pages 299 - 320

Published Online: 16 Jun 2006

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EXPLAINING THE ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE-DELINQUENCY RELATIONSHIP*

RICHARD B. FELSON ¹ JEREMY STAFF ²

¹ Professor of Crime, Law, and Justice and of Sociology at Pennsylvania State University. He is currently researching domestic violence, race differences in assault, alcohol use by offenders and victims, and the response of the criminal justice system to different types of assault. His most recent book, Violence and Gender Reexamined, was published in 2002 by the American Psychological Association. ² Assistant professor of Crime, Law, and Justice in the Pennsylvania State University Department of Sociology. He is currently studying the short- and longer-term consequences of paid work during adolescence for delinquent behavior, social development, and socioeconomic achievement.

*We would like to thank George Farkas, Jeffery Ulmer, and D. Wayne Osgood for helpful comments and advice on an earlier draft of this paper. Please direct all queries to the first author: Richard B. Felson, Department of Sociology, Penn State University, 1012 Oswald Tower, University Park, PA 16802, e-mail:rbf7@psu.edu.

KEYWORDS

delinquency • academic performance • self-control • social bonds

ABSTRACT

We use data from the National Education Longitudinal Survey to examine the relationship between academic performance and delinquency. We estimate the effects of grades in tenth grade on delinquency in twelfth grade, and then introduce controls for social bonds and self-control (teacher-rated effort). The findings indicate that the feedback that adolescents receive in the form of grades does not affect their delinquent behavior, that academic performance and delinquency have instead a spurious relationship. Our evidence suggests that this relationship is attributable primarily to the effects of individual differences in self-control, not to those of social bonds.

DIGITAL OBJECT IDENTIFIER (DOI)

10.1111/j.1745-9125.2006.00050.x About DOI