Findings

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Who reports delinquency?

The 2006 IYS data showed that 13% of Toronto youth in grades 7, 8 and 9 reported committing at least one property-related act of delinquency. The same proportion (13%) also reported committing at least one violent act of delinquency within the 12 months previous to the survey. [Full text]

How are school-related factors associated with delinquency?

The second model in Table 1 and Table 2 added four school-related variables to the demographic model in order to assess whether or not commitment to school and perceptions of the school environment are associated with self-reported youth delinquency net of the demographic characteristics. [Full text]

How are victimization and delinquency related?

In Model 3, we added five variables to the demographic model measuring youth victimization in the last year. The different forms of victimization included discrimination (i.e., being treated badly because of religion, language or skin colour), bullying (i.e., being humiliated, hit or kicked, or excluded from a group) and being hit, stolen from and threatened. [Full text]

How do peers and family matter in terms of delinquency?

In Model 4, we introduced family and peer variables to the demographic model, including youth reported perceptions of the quality of their relationship with their mother and father, how and with whom they spent their time (i.e., whether or not they went out at night and whether or not they spent the majority of time alone, with family or with friends), and the attitudes of their peers towards crime. [Full text]

How do all of these factors fit together?

The full models in Table 1 and Table 2 include all of the factors simultaneously in order to assess their relative associations with self-reported youth delinquency. There were some reductions in the observed effects of the school-related, victimization and peer and family variables on property-related and violent delinquency; however, the results showed that most of these variables retained their independent effects after accounting for the other variables. [Full text]

Discussion

This study investigated the effects of school-related factors, victimization and peer and family relationships on self-reported property and violent delinquency among youth. In addition, we investigated whether these three groups of factors mitigated the effects of sex, age, family composition and immigrant status on youth delinquency. By examining school-related factors, victimization and peer and family relationships separately, we assessed the individual effect of each of these factors on the demographic model. Then, in the full model, we examined all of the factors together to assess their relative associations with delinquency as reported by youth. [Full text]