The influence of self-control on social bonds in predicting delinquent behaviour among youth in the Netherlands

Abstract

In the year 2017, it has appeared that adolescents between the ages of 12 to 15 years old make up almost a third of all registered suspects of criminal offences in the Netherlands. I find it interesting to discover what causes this peak of crime in adolescence. Therefore I am testing, based on the general theory of crime and social bonds theory, whether socials bonds mediate the relationship between self-control and delinquency, or whether this relationship appears to be spurious. To test for this relationship, a binary logistic regression was used for the direct effects, and Sobel’s test was used to test for the mediation effect. Furthermore, I controlled every relationship for sex, educational level and peer delinquency. I found a significant mediation effect, where self-control affects social bonds, and social bonds affect one’s delinquency. After adding the control variables, the effect became smaller, yet remained significant.