Matriarchy and Lower Class Negro Male Delinquency

Despite fairly wide speculation, the issue of matriarchy and delinquency among lower-class Negro males has failed to generate significant empirical research. In an attempt to fill this gap, the factors of absent father, sex of main wage earner, main decision-making and most influential adult were investigated for the households of 921 Negro males, ages 13-15, who resided in a lower-class Negro high-delinquent area. Even though some significant differences were found for the total sample, not a single variable proved to be a major factor (as measured by Goodman and Kruskal's Tau-b). The suggestion is made that the factor of matriarchy may be only one of numerous “original causes” which “push” a lower-class Negro male into delinquency, thus accounting for the small association for matriarchy and delinquency.