Love Deprivation and Violent Juvenile Delinquency

Anthony Walsh, Boise State University
Thomas A. Petee, University of Notre Dame

Abstract

In the elaboration of this relationship we introduce variables of interest to sociologists (class, race, substance abuse) and variables of interest to psychologists (IQ and family size and intactness). Love deprivation emerged as the most useful predictor of violent delinquency, followed by race, class, and substance abuse. IQ and family size and intactness were not significantly related to violent delinquency in the regression model. However, low IQ children were highly overrepresented in our sample in comparison to the normal distribution of IQ levels.