ABSTRACT
The beliefs most obviously relevant to delinquency are those bearing on the goodness or badness of delinquent behavior. In general, three sets of beliefs have been stressed by delinquency theorists: middle-class, lower-class, and criminal. Conflicting claims, vague and shifting definitions, and limited empirical data have left in their wake deep and abiding confusion about the place of beliefs in the causation of delinquency. This chapter concludes the discussion of the place of beliefs in the causation of delinquency by recalling some of the many relations between acceptance of what are called middle-class values and delinquency. High educational and occupational aspirations, high achievement orientation, and so on, are all predictive of nondelinquency. Belief in the moral validity of the law is consistently related to the measures of attachment and commitment. The theories usually suggest the existence of beliefs that positively require delinquent acts.
