Juvenile Entrepreneurs

This paper examines the relationship between delinquency and four variables: delinquent associations, the perception of opportunity, social class, and achievement motivation. While delinquency is related to all four variables, multivariate analysis suggests that two of the variables, delinquent associations and perceived opportunity, are more likely to be consequences of delinquency than causes of it. Achievement motivation, which apparently precedes delinquency and is positively related to it, is so related only for lower-and working-class boys. The author argues that this relationship probably results from the sensibity of law enforcement agents to high achievement motivation related behavior rather than from any inclination of highly motivated lower-class youhts to commit excessive amounts of crime.