Theories of Juvenile Delinquency

Abstract

The topic of juvenile delinquency is a fertile area for construction of sociological theory. Three ma- jor sociological traditions, including structural func- tionalism, symbolic interactionism, and conflict theory, contribute to the explanation of delin- quency. Much of the work in this area seeks to explain why officially recorded delinquency is con- centrated in the lower class, or in what is today more often called the underclass. This entry con- siders the most prominent theories of delinquency under the theoretical rubrics noted above.