Citation

Skinner WF. J. Res. Crime Delinq. 1986; 23(3): 268-294.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1986, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/0022427886023003004

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Despite the voluminous body of literature that has developed around the area of juvenile delinquency in a variety of countries, very little research has specifically focused on this behavioral problem in Iceland. This research addresses this issue by presenting distributional, correlational, and multivariate data on the occurrence of 17 types of delinquency among a sample of young adolescents residing in Reykjavik. It is argued that the demographic and sociocultural characteristics of Iceland set it apart from other modern countries and provide insight to why this country has minimal problems with delinquency. Alcohol and tobacco use occur with the greatest frequency among Icelandic adolescents whereas the least frequent type of delinquent behavior is drug use. Peer group associations and school-related outcomes were found to be the important predictors of delinquency. These findings are discussed in terms of other research in Scandinavian countries and future etiological research.