VALUES AND DELINQUENT YOUTH: AN EMPIRICAL RE-EXAMINATION OF THEORIES OF DELINQUENCY*

DIFFERING views concerning the adherence of delinquents to conventional values and norms abound. Some researchers (Matza, 1964; Sykes and Matza, 1957) maintain that delinquent youths are generally committed to conventional values and moral constraints bu t " neutralise " these constraints episodically through such techniques as the denial of personal responsibility or of injury to others and thus " drift " into deviant behaviour. Other