Nye, F. Ivan: Family Controls and Delinquency

Edward L. Wells

In 1958, F. Ivan Nye published Family Relationships and Delinquent Behavior , a study of how family structures and parent-child relationships influence the occurrence of juvenile delinquency. Based on a cross-sectional survey of high school students in three small cities in Washington and relying on simple cross-tabular analyses, the study might seem ordinary and limited by modern multivariate standards. However, the book made several important contributions to theory and research on delinquent behavior and still counts as an important milestone of modern criminology. One contribution was its innovative use of self-report measurement of delinquency in a general survey of ordinary high school students when most delinquency research in 1958 relied on samples of adjudicated delinquents and used police records to measure their illegal behaviors. These “official delinquency” data reported on serious criminal acts committed by mostly lower-class, socially marginal youths from dysfunctional families in poor neighborhoods. Although self-report delinquency measures ...

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