Social Control & Socialization
The Role of Morality as a Social Mechanism
in Adolescent Deviant Behavior
Stockholm Studies in Sociology N.S.19

By Robert Svensson
July 2004
Almqvist & Wiksell
ISBN: 9122020616
126 pages, 6" x 9"
$59.50 Paper Original

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The object of this doctoral dissertation is to study the processes and mechanisms that restrain adolescents from committing deviant and criminal acts. The framework is that when the socialization process functions well, and norms and values are internalized, an individual will develop a moral sense as to what is right and wrong. In line with this, morality is examined as a social mechanism that may assist us in understanding and explaining the relationship between socialization and adolescent deviance and criminal offenses. The dissertation also discusses what influence the peer group and structural conditions have on deviant and delinquent behavior.

The dissertation is based on three empirical studies. The first study examines gender differences in adolescent drug use in terms of parental monitoring and peer deviance. The second study examines the relationship between gender, parent-child relations, shame, and juvenile delinquency. The third study examines the way attachment to parents and school bonds are linked to levels of self-esteem (measured as self-rejection) and morality (measured as pro-social values), and whether these factors are linked to associations with delinquent friends in the explanation of delinquency.

Sociology

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