chapter seven Flashcards

Question

Baumrind reports that delinquent behaviour is most likely to be found among the children of what kind of parents?

Answer 1

Baumrind reports that delinquent behaviour is most likely to be found among the children of indifferent parents Canadian research shows that children are involved in far more aggressive behaviour when their parents are rejecting (Baumrind’s indifferent type), highly punitive (Baumrind’s authoritarian type), and/or limited nurturers (

Answer 2

Ineffective/hostile is measured in terms of the frequency of parents telling children they are “bad” or not as good as others, or whether the parents are angry when punishing their children. Punitive/aversive refers to parents raising their voices at children or using physical punishment, while consistent refers to parents following through with punishment after a warning or making sure that the child follows orders. Positive interaction involves parents laughing and playing with children. --------------------- The most recent analysis from the survey reports that two-thirds (63 percent) of the children receiving ineffective parenting exhibited aggressive behaviours, such as fighting, bullying, and threatening, compared with only 4 percent of children whose parents rarely used this style

Answer 3

As for questions about which is more important, family structure or parenting styles, early results from the NLSCY indicate that parenting styles have far more impact on children’s behavioural patterns than do family structure or even income levels Children from two-parent homes with “ineffective” or hostile parents are five times more likely to have “persistent behavioural problems” than are children with an “effective” single parent

Answer 4

The IYS 2006 study reports that step-blended family structures are associated with a higher likelihood of both violent and property delinquency and that single-parent families are associated with higher chances of property crime Interestingly, both these relationships disappear when school factors are included in the analysis, and, when all factors are considered together, sex remains as the most important predictor of violent delinquency—the rate of self-reported violent delinquency among boys is twice that of girls

Answer 5

In comparing the impact of all of these factors on behaviour with the impact of a “broken family,” they found that “internal family dynamics are considerably more important than family structure in affecting delinquency”

Answer 6

Differential association theory would suggest that the children of criminal parents are more likely to engage in criminal or delinquent behaviour. Notwithstanding Hirschi’s contention that “parents with criminal records do not encourage criminality in their children and are as ‘censorious’ toward their criminality as are parents with no record of criminal involvement” (1983, p. 59), some studies have found a correlation between parent and child criminality - , boys with criminal fathers are four times more likely than boys with non-criminal fathers to be involved in delinquent behaviour, - Laub and Sampson (1988) found higher rates of delinquency among children of mothers and fathers who are deviant

Answer 7

What seems like a contradiction here may be a result of research limitation, in that, once again, it is difficult for us to know if such children are actually more delinquent than other children As with single mothers, it may be that police and courts are more likely to criminalize the misdeeds of some children precisely because their parents have criminal records and are known to the police.

Answer 8

Most research on family influences on youth crime has focused on family structure and relations or the relationship between the two. Very little has addressed the larger social structure and its impact on particular families

Answer 9

Their power-control theory looks at how structural power relations from the workplace are reflected in control mechanisms in the home. They found that family control structures are influenced by whether both parents work and whether in their employment they occupy positions of power and authority. Differences in degree of delinquency, and between boys’ and girls’ delinquency, are based on whether families are structured as patriarchal or egalitarian. Delinquency—especially boys’ delinquency—is more strongly correlated with a patriarchal family structure.

Answer 10

iSmply put, from the point of view of family relationships, the control theory hypothesis presented by Hirschi is that children who are not “attached” to their parents will have higher rates of delinquency. Kierkus and Baer (2002) looked at family structure and self-reported delinquency (ranging from truancy and running away from home to gang fighting and auto theft) among a sample of Ontario students and found that family structure is a predictor of delinquency, regardless of age, gender, or income. However, once parental attachments were considered (measured as supervision, communication, and quality of relationships), the statistical relationship between delinquency and family structure was considerably diminished. In other words, the authors maintained that parental attachments may explain why some research has reported family structure to be an important predictor of delinquency.

Answer 11

, they too found that family structure was related to delinquency, but its effect was mediated by more interactive family factors.

Answer 12

Furthermore, hyperactivity and hostile parenting were direct contributors to misconduct and aggression

Answer 13

Along the same lines, Parker and Benson (2004) found, using national longitudinal data for adolescents in the United States, that high parental support and parental monitoring are related to greater self-esteem and lower risk behaviours

Answer 14

. The authors conclude that we cannot underestimate the importance of effective parental monitoring and positive parent–child relationships in understanding delinquency. This is particularly true for children from recently immigrated families, who overall have lower rates of reported delinquency, where involvement in delinquency at all depends on relationships with family and friends

Answer 15

itzgerald’s (2010) analysis of the IYS data found a strong relationship between parental monitoring and violent delinquency where violent delinquency included self-reported acts of threatened violence, violent behaviour that resulted in injury, emailing to harass or frighten someone, or carrying a weapon. When parents were “low monitors” (did not know where there children were or who they were with) rates of self-reported violent delinquency were almost five times higher, regardless of gender or age, than among youth whose parents were high monitors.

Answer 16

More specifically, when low-monitored youth attended schools with high levels of delinquency, their involvement in violent delinquency was greater than if they attended a low delinquency school (2010, p. 12).

Answer 17

Thornberry et al. examined the question of parental attachments by looking at interactional effects between family and school experiences, and found that the relationship is more complex than suggested by control theory. The researchers found that the relationship between parental attachments and delinquent behaviour is not a simple one. he first stage of testing revealed that low parental attachment increases delinquency and, as expected, that delinquency worsens attachments to parents. However, the last two stages of testing indicated that while delinquency negatively influences attachment to parents, attachment does not have a significant effect on delinquency.

Answer 18

According to Thornberry et al., “[P]arental influences in accounting for delinquency diminished considerably over time as adolescents gain independence. Indeed, by middle adolescence, attachment to parents is viewed as an effect of delinquency rather than a cause of it”

Answer 19

Research on children’s attachment to parents suggests that this attachment reduces rates of delinquency when it is measured as “affect,” or emotional ties, rather than as supervision.

Answer 20

Positive emotional attachments tend to be most effective in reducing delinquency. Children who feel loved, who identify with their parents, and who respect their wishes are less likely to be delinquent than children who come from homes where there is conflict or neglect, or where discipline is lacking, erratic, or extreme.

Answer 21

More often than not, mothers are the focus of research on family relationships. Interestingly, ethnographic studies of young offenders often indicate that fathers are particularly disruptive to family life, and that children’s “bad” relationships with mothers are frequently due to larger problems in the family setting stemming from the fathers’ violence. adults who have been abused and assaulted in the home, most often mothers, have a reduced capacity for supervising and monitoring their children

Answer 22

what factors are responsible for weak attachments to parents? It is only through ethnographic studies such as Leyton’s and interviews such as Totten’s that we can begin to understand and perhaps even appreciate why some young people have weak attachments to their parents.

Answer 23

Marc Le Blanc (1992), based on his work with families and young offenders in Quebec, recognizes that “marital variables” have direct links to delinquent behaviour.

Answer 24

NLSCY data indicate that Canadian children exposed to physical fighting and violence in the home are more likely to behave aggressively, exhibit emotional disorders, and be involved in property crime Those same data also indicate that they are more likely to engage in bullying behaviour and use indirect forms of aggression, such as rallying friends against other children

Answer 25

there was an increase in the number of victims of spousal violence reporting that children heard or saw these assaults (from 43 to 52 percent) and that children were more likely to witness spousal violence when the victim was female

Answer 26

Childhood victimization increases the risk of violent offending, particularly for male youth, and abused and neglected children are found to begin delinquent careers earlier than non-abused or -neglected children

Answer 27

. Studies of juvenile male sex offenders found that, compared with non-sexual offenders, they were more likely to have witnessed family violence they predominantly came from “multiproblemic families, were abused in early childhood and were exposed to pornographic materials at an early age”

Answer 28

finds that marital discord and parental problems with alcohol and drugs are associated with young offenders’ substance abuse and legal problems, such as time spent in custodial facilities and various administrative charges

Answer 29

A survival strategy for many youth in such family conditions is running away from home (or thrown away), and this puts them at greater risk for criminalization . In 2003, most Canadian runaway children were 12 to 17 years of age; two-thirds were girls and three-quarters were “habitual runners.” Parental neglect, family conflict and violence, school problems, and abuse are the primary reasons for running

Answer 30

Schissel and Fedec (2000) found that young offenders in Saskatoon and Regina who had experienced childhood neglect and/or sexual, physical, or psychological abuse were more likely to be involved in prostitution. Among these factors, all were highly significant for Aboriginal youth, but only childhood sexual abuse was a significant predictor for non-Aboriginal youth involved in prostitution (p. 43).

Answer 31

Girls were also more likely the victims of all forms of violence in the family, but their risk was highest for sexual offences

Answer 32

Chesney-Lind and Shelden (1992, 1998) emphasize that a feminist perspective on female crime will not only account for patriarchal social structures, but also contain an explicit concern about physical and sexual abuse of girls and the relationship between the two: - Unlike young men’s victimization, young women’s victimization and their response to it is shaped by their status as young women . . . their vulnerability is heightened by norms that require that they stay at home, where their victimizers have greater access to them - Moreover . . . females’ victimizers (usually males) can invoke official agencies of social control . . . abusers have traditionally been able to utilize the uncritical commitment of the juvenile justice system to parental authority to force girls to obey them . . . many young women on the run from homes characterized by sexual abuse and parental neglect are pushed by the very statutes designed to protect them into life on the streets . . . young girls are seen as sexually desirable . . . [which] means life on the streets and survival strategies are shaped by patriarchal values. (

Answer 33

Similarly, one cannot talk about attachments or commitments to family and parents without recognizing that, for some youth, there is good reason for weak attachments. In these cases, one would be reluctant to say that the “cause” of delinquency is weak attachments to mothers or parents.

Answer 34

Tales of “bad” parenting, like those of “bad” children, provide ripe fodder for public discussion and moral panic. While children are blamed for social ills, the most readily accepted “cause” of their behaviour is bad parenting. I

Answer 35

“Tough love” is a parenting style believed to provide a solution for parents with “problem” children. It is also a name commonly given to parental support groups that promote “getting-tough” parenting strategies. Using Baumrind’s terminology, it is an authoritarian parenting style possibly fitting into the ineffective/hostile category of the NLSCY surveys. Locking a child out of the house is a common strategy promoted by tough love advocates. It seems to draw its legitimacy by purporting to be “in the child’s best interest” and justified as “this will hurt me more than you.”

Answer 36

"It’s called Toughlove because it’s very tough on the parents because they love their kids so much that they’re going to be tough on those kids because they do love them. And it’s actually not hard on the kids. It’s harder on the parents. It’s very tough on the parents. (Hil & McMahon, 2001, p. 104)6" The quote taken from his sentencing rationale is important not only because it is a reflection of a common sentiment regarding “bad” children and “bad” parents; its significance lies in the blaming—shifting the blame for social ills from children to parents and back again—a vicious spiral that takes us all the way back to the 19th-century Victorian reformers.

Answer 37

Just as child blaming leads to repressive policies, “solutions,” and laws, so too does parent blaming. Hillian and Reitsma-Street (2003, p. 20) refer to this as the “faulty parenting paradigm,” a belief that both children and parents should be held accountable for the misdeeds of the young.

Answer 38

One cannot help but wonder about the sense of these laws. It certainly raises questions from a jurisprudential point of view about the legality of holding two people responsible for the same offence or of holding one person accountable twice What it does is take W.L. Scott’s vision for probation (1908) to its widest extension—it potentially brings all families and parents under the surveillance of the justice system. Justice policies no longer stop with the search for at-risk youth the search is extended to at-risk families . At the very least, such policies are likely to put even more youth at risk, intensify their marginalization, increase their parents’ difficulties, and possibly even criminalize parents who cannot or will not comply.

Answer 39

Another problematic aspect of the blame game is what is left out. As we have seen in ethnographic accounts of the family lives of institutionalized youth and in discussions in earlier chapters, child and youth victimization is pervasive, yet it receives little to no public attention other than in the form of “stranger danger” warnings. Public discourse and moral panics do not problematize parental violence; they problematize the stranger.

Answer 40

he parent abuse concept also falls into the same category as “tough love.” It is a catch phrase used to blame children for their “bad” behaviour and, as Justice Kennedy claimed about tough love, it also abrogates parental responsibility by shifting a failure of parental responsibility onto children. In addressing solutions to parent abuse, counselling for both parents and children is urged, and the primary objective of counselling is to reassert a parent’s “natural” right to authority over the child.

Answer 41

And here is the blame game problem in a nutshell: parents have rights, children do not. This is hardly a new idea, but, as discussed in Chapter 2, it is characteristic of the colonial period in Canada, when children were viewed as possessions and objects of parental authority. Like tough love, the parent abuse concept allows parents and adults to deny that children have inherent rights, that they are persons with dignity and rights of their own, and that parents (and the state) have an obligation to provide for those rights (Denov, 2005, pp. 67–68). Importantly, these rights include the freedom of a voice in their own affairs and a right to the fundamentals of survival: food, clothing, and shelter.

Answer 42

The public blame game accuses parents of abrogating their colonial responsibility to control their children, and the concepts of tough love and parent abuse give parents a rationale for abrogating their primary responsibility in ensuring these rights Many parents, in particular those involved in the youth justice system, are fearful of the very notion of children’s rights and express concern that the “law” (Young Offenders Act/Youth Criminal Justice Act), by giving children “rights,” makes it impossible for them to control their children because they can’t discipline (that is, hit) them anymore

Answer 43

When I asked questions in my court research pertaining to decision-making, a majority of young offenders’ parents asked me to repeat and explain the question of child participation in decision-making. They were surprised that such a question would even be asked. After repeated probing and elaboration, most parents answered that it is they who make decisions about such things as how to spend leisure time, not their children (Bell, 1993).

Answer 44

Nor would they likely believe that Chief Justice Kennedy is wrong. In fact, he was probably very correct in his assessment of the young man and the inappropriateness of his mother’s parenting style. This view would also not likely maintain that most young offenders’ parents do not love their children and struggle to reach them, get worn out from trying, and resort to last-ditch efforts such as tough love. Adopting tough love is usually one step above parents begging the police or court to put their child or children in jail, as we see in “Johnny’s” case (Box 7.1).

Answer 45

showed me a steady stream of economically disadvantaged parents, mostly mothers, worn well beyond their years, tired and exhausted from trying to keep a family together with meagre resources and from trying to manage children who in fact were not “out of control” in an absolute sense, but out of their control It is quite possible that their children never were “under” their control; the only difference, once they become enmeshed in the justice system, is that their children become too big physically to drag back into the house Other research has also found that a majority of parents in the youth justice system are deeply concerned about their children’s well-being and are highly cooperative in helping the courts find solutions for their children’s behaviour

Answer 46

Answers may come from recognizing first, as we have in this textbook, that child and youth victimization is largely invisible in our society, while child and youth criminal activity has a very high profile. Victim status must be “earned” by children and youth, while their status as offenders is “eagerly ascribed”

Answer 47

. . . the punitive culture towards young people must be seen as rooted in a long history in which the “chastisement” of children is the legitimate province of the family as a primary institution of socialization and control. “Discipline” by parents (or rather the lack of it) has so consistently been placed at the forefront of debates about the crime problem that we must consider whether there is a longstanding and deeply ingrained punitiveness towards children and young people which precedes, and frames, our societal insistence upon seeing young people as a problem population who must first and foremost be contained through punishment. (Brown, 2005, p. 128)8

Answer 48

As with positivist and “modern” scientific thinking on youth crime that looks at family factors to explain the criminal behaviour of youth and children, schools are also implicated in many theories, and a considerable amount of research has taken place in this tradition in order to isolate factors associated with school that contribute to delinquency

Answer 49

. Up until the 1960s, schools tended to be viewed as “solutions” to issues of race and class, in the sense that they were seen as the great equalizers, the source of the “American dream,” so to speak. All one needed to do was get an education and social mobility was assured.

Answer 50

School failure was viewed as a major problem because it was linked to delinquent behaviour. Canadian research in the 1980s, for example, showed that both self-reported delinquency and official rates of delinquency were strongly correlated with school failure

Answer 51

for example, for children from single-parent families or children who are subject to hostile parenting. The causal chain is assumed to be that school failure is the source of delinquent behaviour and that school failure is the result of individual inability to achieve or as of a failure of the school system to meet the educational needs of all youth. By the 1980s, as the moral panic about youth gained momentum, public emphasis and concern shifted to schools as a site of youth crime and educational issues took a back seat to concerns about the schools’ ability (or lack thereof) to discipline and control the youth population. In the discussion that follows, we will look at theory, empirical knowledge, and theorizing regarding both of these tracks.

Answer 52

Albert Cohen’s subcultural theory and control theory both suggest that school is a determinant of delinquent behaviour. Cohen (1955), in his version of strain theory, indicated that the delinquent subculture stemmed from REACTION FORMATION wherein lower- and working-class youth responded to the frustrations they experienced in a middle-class school system. Control theory simply posits that low levels of school commitment will lead to delinquency.

Answer 53

Much of the contemporary research has focused on school commitment, and it has consistently found not only a relationship between school commitment and youth crime, but also a relationship between lack of commitment to an early onset of delinquency and the escalation of delinquency to more serious criminal activity, carrying with the risk of gang involvement Research has also demonstrated that strategies designed to increase levels of commitment reduce youth criminal activity

Answer 54

The NLSCY allows a measure of school commitment through questions about participation in school activities, making friends at school, learning new things, the importance of doing well at school, expressing opinions at school, and showing up on time. Results from an analysis of 12- to 15-year-old Canadian youth in 1998–1999 showed that Canadian girls are more committed to school than are boys and that girls’ commitment to school reduces their involvement in property crime more so than it does for boys. . The 2006 IYS confirms that school commitment lowers self-reported involvement in both violent and property delinquencies (Fitzgerald, 2009, p. 12; Zeman & Bressan, 2008, p. 20).

Answer 55

Low levels of school commitment were also associated with violent crime, and there were no differences between boys and girls Interestingly, Fitzgerald also looked at interconnections between delinquency and self-reported victimization and school commitment, and found that girls seem to have “an increased sensitivity to both factors.” More specifically, where both boys’ and girls’ commitment to school and level of victimization were related to delinquency, girls with high levels of victimization and a low level of school commitment reported more property-related and violence-related delinquency (pp. 12, 16, 18).

Answer 56

Colvin and Pauly (1987) combined the ideas of Cohen’s working-class “reaction formation” with control theory notions of school commitment and argue that COERCIVE CONTROLS in working-class families combine with similar controls in schools to increase the chance of failure among working-class youth in the school system. Hence, some failure explanations focus on the organization of schools and classrooms, others focus on the role of school in the larger social structure and its impact on particular class and minority groups, and still others focus on an individual’s shortcomings.

Answer 57

1) IQ 2) Tracking 3) Disabilities

Answer 58

IQ Reminiscent of early biological understandings of criminality as a function of “feeblemindedness” are modern claims that a low IQ is predictive of school failure and subsequent delinquent behaviour. his is the view presented by James Q. Wilson and Richard Herrnstein (1985). They argue that IQ has a direct effect on delinquency in that young people with low intelligence tend to be impulsive, lacking in moral reasoning, and inclined to think only in terms of immediate gratification. For these youth, school failure encourages delinquency: see textbook

Answer 59

Hirschi (1969) argues that IQ is related to delinquency indirectly through its effect on grades. IQ affects grades, which in turn affect one’s attachment to school. Attachment to school affects one’s tolerance of school authority, and tolerance of authority affects one’s involvement in delinquency

Answer 60

Liska and Reid (1985), for example, questioned not only the predominance of IQ in Hirschi’s model, but also the chain of events. They maintained that . . . street delinquency may be correlated with troublesome school behavior in classrooms, school halls and school yards. . . . [A]lso, adolescents involved in delinquency simply have less time for school; thus, delinquency, independently of teacher reactions, may decrease school attachment. (p.

Answer 61

Of course, none of the IQ research addresses the cultural bias inherent in IQ tests and its negative effects on students from minority groups. B Box 7.2 presents an example of a question from the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-R), an IQ test used in California. The scores for this question are (a) two points, (b) two points, (c) one point, and (d) no points. What makes the question culturally biased is the high probability that children who have experienced racial prejudice or police harassment will choose (d), based on the assumption that picking up the wallet would make them vulnerable to accusations of theft (Regoli & Hewitt, 1994, p. 263).

Answer 62

Tracking One of the consequences of IQ tests and other forms of testing is that schools “streamline” or “track” students into different types of classes Students can be tracked into vocational programs, college prep programs, remedial programs, or special ed programs, to name a few

Answer 63

Based on his Montreal studies, Marc Le Blanc (1993) reported a number of school experiences, including tracking, to be predictors of delinquency. Nonetheless, it is not necessarily IQ or grades that determine students’ track allocations. Tracking decisions are often made by counsellors, teachers, and parents, and they are often made on the basis of race and class. Regoli and Hewitt (1994, p. 262) report that, in the United States, African American students are two times more likely than white students to be tracked into special education classes. Not surprisingly, as the proportion of African American teachers increases in schools, the number of African American students in special education programs decreases (p. 263).

Answer 64

The results provided little evidence that delinquency was related to tracking at either the beginning or the end of the high school career (Wiatrowski et al., 1982). For Tanner (1996), an important finding was that 87 percent of the students said they were satisfied with their track allocation. This finding suggested to Tanner that tracking may be related to delinquency only when students are negatively labelled because of it and come to resent being tracked. Given the contradictory research evidence on tracking, Tanner argues that “a reasonable conclusion might be that a sense of fairness about appropriate track allocations reduces delinquency” (

Answer 65

We have seen in earlier chapters that there are high rates of delinquency among youth diagnosed with LD and ADHD. It is not the disability that connects the youth to delinquent and criminal behaviour, but, rather, the failure of schools and school boards to adequately diagnose or respond in effective ways. Research shows that school problems begin early for youth with BD, LD, or ADHD diagnoses. These students most often are in special ed programs and are “early starters.” A study of special ed students showed that 90 percent had been suspended from school, that many had been involved in the courts at the elementary school level, and that school dropout rates were high especially among students from poor and single-family homes. Zabel and Nigro (1999) maintain that this is a clear indication that schools are not responding effectively to youth with disabilities and that out-of-school suspensions are not an appropriate response. More importantly, they suggest that it is the school—and its policies—that is a major contributor to crime among youth (pp. 36–38).

Answer 66

School Policy/Organization Another way of looking at tracking, IQ testing, and disabilities, and their impact on delinquency, is to consider them as issues created by the organization of the school and the educational system rather than as factors related to the young offender.

Answer 67

A highly influential book at the time was Paul Copperman’s The Literacy Hoax (1980). Copperman outlined a number of problems associated with schools that are delinquency-producing. Simply put, he argued that school delinquency is created by a lack of teacher authority. This lack of teacher authority is a function of the organization of the school, particularly with respect to school principals. According to Copperman, a school cannot teach students in the absence of a strong principal who is able to exercise authority and concentrate on curriculum and teaching (including the firing of incompetent teachers).

Answer 68

Copperman also viewed open classrooms with flexible schedules, electives, and light course loads as problematic. A lack of structure in classrooms translates into teachers’ loss of control over students. It is precisely this loss of control, Copperman maintained, that leads to violence, disruption, and drug use in contemporary schools.

Answer 69

Schissel (1997), for example, maintains that rigid, punitive, and authoritarian school systems exacerbate youth problems, particularly for individuals who are marginalized, who are at risk, or who simply have not had the advantages others have (pp. 120–126). He advocates more flexibility in schools to meet youth needs and a “human rights approach” to youth education (p. 121). Contrary to Copperman, Schissel (1997) advocates for fundamental changes and argues that schools need to develop alternative models of teaching, learning, and curriculum to better serve youth who are marginal and “relatively disadvantaged.” He cites Princess Alexandria School and Joe Duquette High School in Saskatoon and St. Peter’s College Alternative High School in Muenster, Saskatchewan, as examples of schools that are committed to “egalitarian and non-authoritarian” teaching. All of these schools reject standardized, inflexible curricula; offer a non-judgmental and non-punitive learning environment; reject discipline and punishment; and focus on empowering students in an atmosphere of mutual respect (Schissel, 1997, pp. 120–126). School boards also need to adapt to the needs of street youth by providing educational programs that address their remedial needs and acknowledge the realities of street life in physical learning spaces that are accessible to them (Schissel & Fedec, 2000, p. 52). A survey of homeless and runaway/thrownaway youth in Toronto, for example, found that only 20 percent could be classified as “normal achieving,” half the youth (52 percent) had a reading disability, and one-third (29 percent) had arithmetic/written work disabilities (Barwick & Siegel, 1996, p. 649).

Answer 70

The idea of an “all-Black school” raised old issues of segregation and generated considerable controversy in newspapers about the effects of diversity. “Soft” diversity, things such as ethnic restaurants and festivals, is seen as a positive component of Canadian society, while “hard” diversity, things like racial discrimination, is seen as a negative factor The debate was whether an “all-Black school” was soft or hard diversity. Carl James, a York University education professor, was quoted in the Vancouver Sun as saying this was not the issue at all. He maintains that Black students in Canada already experience segregation in education, whereas an Africentric school, one actually segregated, provides an opportunity for healing and an enhanced learning environment for its students (Keeping, September 22, 2008, p. A11).

Answer 71

Jane Sprott (2004) examined data on Canadian students from the NLSCY to assess the effect of classroom and school climates on delinquent behaviour. She found that delinquency is related to classroom climate and that the classroom climate is more important at reducing levels of violent behaviour than the school climate, measured as management styles read textbook for morw

Answer 72

A question lurking behind all of the research regarding tracking, IQ, and loss of teacher authority is whether these factors are related to delinquency because of the class structure of Western society.