The Cycle of Deviant Behavior / Longitudinal Research in the Social and Behavioral Sciences: An Interdisciplinary Series (PDF)

To conduct the study on criminal and antisocial behavior at the center of this volume, the authors devoted years to collecting data from a large community sample of first-generation subjects. Data were garnered throughout their early adolescence, twenties, and thirties as well as from these first-generation subjects' biological children during their own early adolescence. The results of these studies have profound implications for future research and methodology on deviant behavior.

Within the succinct, information-packed seven chapters of The Cycle of Deviant Behavior: Investigating Intergenerational Parallelism, the authors:

• Present an integrative theory of deviant behavior, synthesizing social stress, social control, societal labeling, and other perspectives.


• Describe the intergenerational cycle of deviant behavior.


• Identify the relationship between deviance and its significant correlates (e.g., self-rejection).


• Explain factors central to motivation toward deviant behaviors and to the continuance or discontinuance of these behaviors across generations.


• Review the literature on intergenerational parallelism and discuss the methodological limitations of current studies.

By providing multiple models of parental transmission of values and culture - and acknowledging the roles of intervening processes in life - The Cycle of Deviant Behavior: Investigating Intergenerational Parallelism offers well-rounded insights to a wide range of professional readers, including sociologists, criminologists, and specialists in developmental and abnormal psychology and psychiatry.