Disentangling the Link between Disrupted Families and Delinquency : Sociodemography, Ethnicity and Risk Behaviours

Abstract

The Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development is a prospective longitudinal survey of 411 South London males from age 8 to age 46. Delinquency rates were higher among 75 boys who were living in permanently disrupted families on their fifteenth birthday, compared to boys living in intact families. Results were very similar whether juvenile convictions, juvenile self-reported delinquency or adult convictions were studied. Delinquency rates were similar in disrupted families and in intact high conflict families. Boys who lost their mothers were more likely to be delinquent than boys who lost their fathers, and disruptions caused by parental disharmony were more damaging than disruptions caused by parental death. Boys from disrupted families who continued living with their mothers had similar delinquency rates to boys from intact harmonious families. These results are more concordant with life course theories rather than with trauma theories or selection theories of the effects of family disruption.