DISAGGREGATING SELF-REPORTED DELINQUENCY AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR THEORY*

This paper examines the theoretical import of disaggregating self-reported delinquency data into two constituent parts: (1) prevalence data, which record the proportion of any group involved in crime, reject the decision to participate in crime, and (2) incidence data, which record the frequency of offending within the subgroup of participants, reject the decision to repeat a previously committed offense. The importance of this conceptual distinction is that different causal facts may be involved in these separate offending decisions and those differences would be obscured if the data were not disaggregated. We review major delinquency theories to determine if theoretical variables are more strongly related to the prevalence or the incidence of delinquency. Multivariate models tentatively suggest that the distinction between prevalence and incidence should be maintained, although additional research with more serious offenses is needed.

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