PUB - Publikationen an der Universität Bielefeld

The etiological aspects of a Structural-Dynamic Model of delinquent development were analysed with the first five waves (age 13 to 17) of the prospective panel study "Crime in the Modern City" which has been carried out in Duisburg since 2002. Applying a combined Markov- and Growth-Curve Model, the developments of structural explanatory factors and self-reported delinquency and their reciprocal as well as direct and indirect relations were examined within one statistical model. Restricted to the explanation of an index of total delinquency, the longitudinal analysis resulted, above all, in a pathway to conformity while proving the conceptual distinction between distal and proximate structural factors: Distal traditional value orientations were related to the perception of a positive school climate which in turn supported a positive norm orientation. Only this proximal norm acceptance exerted a direct impact on (lesser) delinquency.