ABSTRACT
This article analysed youth attitudes towards social values, youth’s delinquent behaviour, and the relationship between the two were analysed. A sample of ninth-grade school students (n = 1747) was surveyed in a Russian city (Volgograd) in 2000. A latent class analysis was conducted to identify different groups of youth based on their attitudes towards social values. Three latent groups were identified: indifferent, competitor-centred, and traditional youth. More specifically, the study examined if youth perceptions of societal values determine their participation in violent offenses. All crimes were grouped as either instrumental violence (e.g., robbery or extortion) or non-instrumental violence (e.g., assault or threat with weapon). The results show that the competitor-centred youths are proportionally more criminal (35% of instrumental and 34.6% non-instrumental violent crimes) than the other groups. The traditional youths are least criminal of all.
