Self-reported delinquency is a count of delinquency based on the method of asking young people if they have committed an illegal act in a specified time period. The self-reported delinquency technique is one of three major ways of measuring involvement in delinquent and criminal behavior. The self-report method in the 1950s, the growth and refinement of this measurement technique since then, had an impact on criminological research, especially longitudinal research on the etiological factors of delinquent and criminal behavior. The basic approach of the self-report method is to ask individuals if they have engaged in delinquent or criminal behavior, and if so, how often they have done so.
Particular attention has been paid to assessing the reliability and validity of self-reported measures of delinquency. Psychometric quality of the self-report method has increased considerably since its inception in the 1950s. Although there is much room for continued improvement, self-report data appear acceptably valid and reliable for most research purposes. - The Self-Report Method for Measuring Delinquency and Crime by Terence P. Thornberry and Marvin D. Krohn.
The Self-Reported Delinquency measure (Elliot, Huizinga, Heton, 1985) was used in the Pittsburgh Youth Study. Self-report of delinquency instruments are well known and frequently used. Their advantages and disadvantages have been discussed in the literature (Huizinga and Elliott, 1986; Klien, 1988).
The following delinquency scales were created by taking the mean across items. The items capture whether or not the child committed certain delinquent behaviors:
The analyst should be cautioned that the scales are extremely skewed towards the lower part of the scale, because of the low frequency of the occurrence. This is true for the method of scoring as calculated here, but is even more exaggerated if the second question for each item, frequency of events is used. The frequency of most delinquent behaviors are highly skewed with higher variances for offenders. If frequency of events scores are used, the analyst should be advised that there are outliers present and each item should be inspected and evaluated for them.
The Validity of a
Self-reported Delinquency Scale: Comparisons Across Gender, Age, Race, and Place
of Residence - Alex R Piquero,
Randall MacIntosh, Matthew J. Hickman.
Abstract: Self-reported delinquency scales have been
widely adopted by researchers seeking to measure delinquency. Establishing the
validity of these scales is critical because if valid measures are not created,
findings about the correlates of delinquency will be of limited use in testing
theory and formulating public policy.
Inconsistent Self-Report of Delinquency by
Adolescents and Young Adults with ADHD
Margaret H. Sibley, William E. Pelham, Brooke S.G.
Molina, Daniel A. Waschbusch, Elizabeth M. Gnagy, Dara E. Babinski, and
Aparajita Biswas.
Abstract: The purpose of the current study was to test the ability of
adolescents and young adults with childhood ADHD to reliably self-report
delinquency history. Data were examined from the Pittsburgh ADHD Longitudinal
Study, a follow-up study of children diagnosed with ADHD between 1987 and
1996. Self-report of lifetime delinquency history was compared to concurrent
parent-report and to self-report one year later. Participants included 313 male
probands and 209 demographically similar comparison individuals without ADHD.