ABSTRACT
Most sociological efforts to construct causal theories of delinquency have begun with efforts to explain demonstrated or alleged group differences in rates of juvenile delinquency. The principal correlates so treated have been ecological areas; rural-urban location; socioeconomic status; age; sex; ethnic, nationality, nativity, or racial status; and, to a lesser extent, family relationships and structure. When theories of delinquency are analyzed according to the general types of explanations offered, they fall broadly into two main categories: theories which view delinquency as the result of structural and/or cultural malfunctioning in the realization of shared values; and theories of the autonomy of cultural value systems condoning delinquency. Delinquency results from lack of agreement on values defining delinquent conduct, not from impediments to the realization of shared values. In establishing the causes of delinquency Clifford Shaw and Frederick Thrasher place greater emphasis on constraints, or the set of social controls, than on pressures.
