The Myth of Social Class and Criminality
An Empirical Assessment of the Empirical Evidence
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 5621241 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Charles R Tittle (Florida Atlantic University), Wayne J Villemez, Douglas A Smith |
| Year | 1978 |
| Volume | 43 |
| Issue | 5 |
| Pages | 643 |
| Publication date | 1978-10-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | American Sociological Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0003-1224 • E-ISSN: 1939-8271 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/2094541 |
| OpenAlex | W1996871402 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 146 |
| References cited | 46 |
Thirty-five studies examining the relationship between social class and crime/delinquency are reduced to comparable statistics using instances where the relationship was studied for specific categories of age, sex, race, place of residence, data type, or offense as units of analysis. The findings from 363 instances are summarized and patterns are identified. The overall results show only a slight negative relationship between class and criminality, with self-report studies reflecting lower associations than official statistics studies. Moreover, analysis demonstrates a clear historical decline in magnitude of association to the point where both self-report and official statistics studies done in the current decade find no class variation. This historical trend is shown to be due to changes in the findings from studies using official statistics as indicators of criminality. Alternative interpretations are discussed, but all lead to serious doubts about the adequacy of theories of deviance that contain assumptions of class differences. (abstract Adapted from Source: American Sociological Review, 1978. Copyright © 1978 by the American Sociological Association) Social Class Class Factors Sociocultural Factors Socioeconomic Factors Crime Causes Delinquency Causes Adult Crime Adult Offender Juvenile Crime Juvenile Delinquency Juvenile Offender 07-00
Class (philosophy · Criminology · Empirical evidence · Empirical research · Epistemology · Mythology · Political science · Social class · Sociology · Statistics · Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science · Crime Patterns and Interventions · Crime, Illicit Activities, and Governance · History · Law · Mathematics · Philosophy · Psychology · Wildlife Conservation and Criminology Analyses
Self-Control and Social Control
The prediction of criminal and violent recidivism among mentally disordered offenders
Economic Inequality and Personal Victimisation
Sex and Involvement in Deviance/Crime
"They Bring You Up to Do Like Your Daddy Done"
Jugend, Recht und Kriminalität
Social Class and Crime
Causation, Theory, and Policy in the Social Sciences
Crime and Class
Back to the Roots! Der Lebensführungsansatz von Max Weber
Classification for Effective Rehabilitation
Religion and Delinquency
Social Area Influences on Delinquency
A Review of Crime-Causation Theory and Its Application
Material Hardship and Youth Development
Adolescent Delinquency and Adulthood Economic Disadvantage and Job Benefits
The Moderating Influence of Poverty on Criminal Justice Processing
How Serious Is Debt Among Probation Clients? A Study Into the Prevalence and Scope of Debt in a Dutch Probation Sample
Character, Circumstances, and Criminal Careers
Kriminalsoziologie
Czy bieda czyni złodzieja? Związki między bezrobociem, ubóstwem a przestępczością
What's Class Got to Do with It? A Further Examination of Power-Control Theory
Class, Compliance Structures, and Delinquency
Age, Crime, and Social Explanation
A Structuralist Critique of the IQ-Delinquency Hypothesis
A Critique of Criminology
The Empirical Status of Social Learning Theory
Class in the Household
Poverty, Income Inequality, and Violent Crime
The Class Structure of Gender and Delinquency
A Revised Strain Theory of Delinquency
The Social Construction of School Punishment
Delinquency and the Black Middle Class
Race, Social Class, Communication, and Accusations
The Relationship Between Moral Judgments and Causal Explanations of Everyday Environmental Crimes
Critical Criminology, Traditional Crime, and Public Policy
Meta‐Analysis in Criminal Justice and Criminology
The Job Compact and Crime
Stigma of school counselling among Israeli adolescents as a function of ethnicity, counselling orientation and contact frequency
The most ‘undeserving’ of all? How poverty drives young men to victimisation and crime
Socioeconomic status, economic deprivation, and school misconduct
Cross-National Variation in Socioeconomic Status and Delinquency
Assessing the Extent and Sources of NCAA Rule Infractions
Crime, shame and reintegration in Russia
Expecting the Worst
Adolescent male status and delinquent behavior
Family Disruption, Violent Victimization and Protest Masculinity
Social class and crime in a caribbean community
From Slavery to Social Class to Disadvantage
Childhood economic disadvantage and antisocial behavior
Economic adversity and crime
Compounded Risk
Race, conventional crime, and criminal justice
Class and self-reported juvenile delinquency
Economic and Sociocultural Variables affecting Rates of Youth Unemployment, Delinquency, and Crime
Do Public Schools Increase Juvenile Delinquency
Public School Vandalism
The Work Ethnic and Delinquency
Did Falling Wages and Employment Increase U.S. Imprisonment
Crime and the Restructuring of the U.S. Economy
Estratificación social y delincuencia. Cuarenta años de discrepancias sociológicas
Bilanz der empirischen Lebensstilforschung
Soziale Schichtung Und Delinquenz
Caste, Class, and Violent Crime
Parental Management
Does Correctional Treatment Work? A Clinically Relevant and Psychologically Informed Meta‐analysis
Specifying the Ses/Delinquency Relationship
The Poverty of a Classless of Criminology—the American Society of Criminology 1991 Presidential Address Criminology
Density, Delinquency, and Design Formal and Informal Control and the Built Environment
Reconsidering the Relationship Between Ses and Delinquency
Social Class and Violent Behavior
A Meta‐analysis of the Gene‐crime Relationship
Social Class, Child Maltreatment, and Delinquent Behavior
Violent Delinquents and Urban Youths
The New Myth of Class and Crime
Gene‐based Evolutionary Theories in Criminology
The Timing and Mechanisms of the Offending‐depression Link
Socioeconomic Status and Perceptions of Personal Arrest Probabilities
Are Uniform Crime Reports a Valid Indicator of the Index Crimes? An Affirmative Answer With Minor Qualifications
Neighborhood and Delinquency
The Myth of Social Class and Crime Revisited
Explaining Racial and Ethnic Differences in Serious Adolescent Violent Behavior
Debt Problems and Crime
A Test of General Strain Theory
Doing Gender
Social Status and Deviance
Non-market institutions and crime in US counties
Account Strategies for the Violation of Social Norms
Strain Theory Revisited
Crime et famines. Europe, Afrique, Asie, XIX e et XX e siècles
Drug and Drinking Behavior Among Youth
Deviant Places
The Decline of Elite Homicide
De l'analyse économique du crime aux nouvelles criminologies anglo-saxonnes
Class and Crime
Less Eligibility, Welfare, and Punishment
Self-Reported Delinquency in India
Social class and deviance among young adults in Türkiye
The Impact of Moral Development on Delinquent Involvement
Les sondages de délinquance autoreportée
The Labelling of Deviance
Rebellion in a high school
Delinquency in a birth cohort
Prestige and association in an urban community
Towards an Understanding of Juvenile Delinquency
Undetected Delinquent Behavior
Juvenile Delinquency and Urban Areas (Phoenix Books)
The class structure of the advanced societies.
Class Structure in the Social Consciousness (International Library of Society)
Massification Versus Differentiation
Group Violations, Socioeconomic Status and Official Delinquency
Black-White Income Differentials
Social Stratification
Who Defines Delinquency
Lower Class Culture as a Generating Milieu of Gang Delinquency
Social Class, School Experience, and Delinquency
The Decline and Fall of Social Class
Delinquency and Social Class
Crime and Social Class in Denmark
Status origins, youth rebellion, and delinquency
Delinquency Theory and Recent Research
Social Theory and Social Structure
Social Stratification and Deviant Behavior
Race, Social Status, and Criminal Arrest
Socio-Economic Class and Area as Correlates of Illegal Behavior Among Juveniles
Selected Characteristics of Classes in a Middle Western Community
Social Correlates of Early Adolescent Theft
Ecological Correlations and the Behavior of Individuals
Social Problems
Continuity in Delinquency Area Research
Biasing Influences on Drug Arrest Records
On Fitting the 'Facts' of Social Class and Criminal Behaviour
Instabilities in Status
Social Stratification in the United States
The Facts Don't Fit
Black Families and the Moynihan Report
From Delinquent Behavior to Official Delinquency
Socio-Economic Status and Reported Delinquent Behavior
Continuities in Research
Status Origins, Track Position, and Delinquent Involvement
Anomie and Its Alternatives
Delinquency and Perceived Opportunity
Socioeconomic Status and Delinquent Behavior
The Current Literature on Social Stratification
| Unique citing works | 146 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 3,11 |
| Citation span | 1979 - 2026 (48) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | Yes |
| Citation types | Neutral: 142 |