Assessing changes in the prevalence and patterns of 'middle class' delinquency in Queensland over ten years (1996-2006)

Are school aged youth currently engaging in more or different types of delinquency as they were 10 years ago? Are they becoming more violent over time? This paper reports the findings of a comparative study of dimensions of delinquency amongst high school aged youth in Queensland. Of significance for the project is the opportunity to assess changes in patterns of delinquency across a 10 year period, 1996 to 2006. Due to the significant growth in communities in south east Queensland, as well as changes in the life and school circumstances of youth, this study provides a unique opportunity to assess systematically whether the patterns of delinquent behaviour have changed over the period. In the Australian context, there is a dearth of data that assesses change in patterns of delinquency over time for comparable populations of youth. Thus, this paper represents one of the few attempts to assess whether patterns of self reported delinquency has changed over time