Moral judgment and behavioral dimensions of juvenile delinquency

Abstract

The relationship of levels of moral reasoning to behavioral dimensions of juvenile delinquency was investigated, using 162 delinquent boys in a reformatory. After adding biographical data to the Quay Behavioral Classification Instruments, four second-order factors were obtained, interpreted as a social inadequacy, an obstreperousness, a social orientation and an antisocial egocentricity factor. The principled morality score of Rest's Defining Issues Test correlated negatively with a social inadequacy score while a score measuring morality of rules and duty to social order correlated with a score indicating a group inclined social orientation. Unexpectedly delinquents with antisocial egocentristic tendencies did not display lower principled morality scores. Some evidence for the validity of Quay's Inadequacy-immaturity dimension was found_

A Review of Cross-Cultural Studies on Moral Judgment Development Using the Defining Issues Test

“…Another reason can be sought in the low reading level of both groups (the author assumed that the subjects' education level was at grades four and five). Heyns, Niekerk, and Rouk (1981) studied the relation of moral reasoning level to behavioral dimensions of juvenile delinquency. The subjects were 57 South African delinquent boys (eleventh and twelfth graders in a reformatory catering to severe cases).…”

Attitudes, values and moral reasoning as predictors of delinquency

“…Hudgins & Prentice, 1973; Jurkovic & Prentice, 1974; McColgan, Rest, & Pruitt, 1983) control for all of these, although very few have included no control for the key variables of age, IQ or social background (e.g. Hawk & Peterson, 1974; Heyns, Van Niekerk, & Le Roux, 1981; Palmer & Hollin, 1996). Although it might normally be expected that an absence of relevant controls would increase the probability of a Type II error, this is not invariably the case.…”