Self-reported Law-violating Behavior from Adolescent

Project Summary for 2003IJCX1011 The study will analyze data from rounds one through five of the NLSY97, a nationaly representative study of youth who were between the ages of 12 and 16 as of 12/31/96. Round one surveyed 8,900 subjects and collected information about law-violating behavior, respondent attitudes, household characteristics, neighborhood attributes, and school environment. Five rounds of data will allow investigation of ages 12 through 21. This study, however, will focus on youth ages 12 to 17, the target population of the U.S. juvenile justice system. Descriptive analyses will profile subjects' behaviorand variation across sub-population. Multivariate analyses will assess factors associated with the onset, persistence, and desistance of law-violating behaviors`, the impact of risk and protective factors, co-morbidity, and differences across sub-populations. Researchers will compare and contrast self-reportes law-violating behavior for various populations as defined by age, gender, race, family structure, and labor force status, among others. Researchers will also construct a sequencing model for law-violating behavior over the life course and compare the findings t those based on the National Youth Study's earlier cohort. Ca/ncf