Self-esteem as a predictive factor in juvenile delinquency

Volumes of research have been written over the past forty years on factors related to delinquency. Theories on the causation of delinquency have been derived from three basic perspectives: biological, psychological, and environmental-sociological (Johnson, Bird, & Little, 1981; Empey, 1982). Biological causes include genetic and physical structure of the child. The psychological perspectives sees delinquency as a result of emotional instability. Environmental reasons include socio-economic status of the child\u27s family, peer group pressure, and neighborhood cultural characteristics. The purpose of this paper is to review the relationship of self-esteem and delinquency and primarily focus on whether a low level of self-esteem is a predictive factor for delinquency. As a result there will be some theoretical overlap in this review