Youth involvement in crime has declined substantially over the past few decades, yet the reasons for this trend remain unclear. We advance the literature by examining the role of several potentially important shifts in individual attitudes and behaviors that may help to account for the observed temporal variation in youth delinquency. Our multilevel analysis of repeated cross‐sectional data from eighth and tenth grade students in the Monitoring the Future (MTF) study indicates that changes in youth offending prevalence were not associated with changes in youth attachment and commitment to school, community involvement, or parental supervision after school. In contrast, the study provides suggestive evidence that the significant reduction in youth offending prevalence observed since the early 1990s was significantly associated with a decrease in unstructured socializing and alcohol consumption and, to a lesser extent, with a decrease in youth preferences for risky activities. Implications for existing theoretical explanations and future research on youth crime trends are discussed.

中文翻译：

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美国青年的当代转型：1991-2015 年犯罪发生率变化分析


过去几十年来，青少年参与犯罪活动大幅减少，但造成这一趋势的原因仍不清楚。我们通过研究个人态度和行为中几个潜在重要转变的作用来推进文献，这些转变可能有助于解释观察到的青少年犯罪的时间变化。我们对监测未来（MTF）研究中八年级和十年级学生的重复横断面数据进行多层次分析表明，青少年犯罪率的变化与青少年对学校的依恋和承诺、社区参与或家长监督的变化无关。校外。相比之下，该研究提供了提示性证据，表明自 20 世纪 90 年代初以来观察到的青少年犯罪率的显着下降与非结构化社交活动和饮酒量的减少显着相关，并且在较小程度上与青少年对危险活动的偏好的减少有关。讨论了对青少年犯罪趋势的现有理论解释和未来研究的影响。