Comparison of Risk Perception Between Delinquents and Non-Delinquents

The author is a Research Associate at the Hawthorne Cedar Knolls School, Hawthorne, New York. He is co-director of a research-demonstration project, supported by the National Institute of Mental Health, which is concerned with a social system approach to milieu therapy for emotionally disturbed and delinquent adolescent boys. Dr. Claster received the B.A. degree from Yale University in 1954 and the Ph.D. degree, in social psychology, from Columbia University in 1961. He was formerly Instructor in Sociology at the University of Kentucky. Delinquents have been said to differ from non-delinquents in the way in which they perceive the risk of committing crimes. Such a difference may appear in sociological, psychological, or social-psychological terms. This study found evidence for differences at the psychological and social-psychological, but not at the sociological level. The findings suggest that the greater "impulsivity" found among delinquents is related to their feelings of immunity from the law.