The age-crime relationship is one of the debated issue in criminology. General theory and developmental theories tried to explain different approaches to these relationship. General theories, such social control theory and self-control theory, assume that can be explained with a single factor across age groups, but developmental theory and life course theory try to explained various factors to each age groups.
The aim in this study is to test empirically the age-delinquency relation with general theory and developmental theory, and analyze to which factors explain delinquency within different adolescent age groups. The data that we have analysed here were obtained from a self-reported survey conducted in Seoul in July, 2008. The sample consists of a total of 2,056 elementary/middle/high school students aged between 10 and 18.
In this study, the criminal factors of each theories is operationalized as parental attachment, parental supervision, supervision, self-control, association with delinquent peer. we found that the processes related to youth's delinquency change considerably across age groups. This results indicate that age generality of general theories is not faithful to delinquency across the age groups.
And we wish this study to contribute to the understand and explanation of age-crime relationship in our society. From our study, it is implied that future research should attempt to develop a more considerable model and the measures on the major concepts and analysis methods on these issue.