Class, Compliance Structures, and Delinquency: Assessing Integrated Structural-Marxist Theory

In this article, the causal structure of Colvin and Pauly's "Integrated Structural-Marxist" theory of delinquent behavior is explicated, and testable hypotheses are examined by using data from the Richmond study on white males and females. The results indicate that measures of membership in different "fractions" of the working class are not consistently related to family or school compliance structures as the theory predicts. However, hypotheses concerning the relationship between family compliance structures and school compliance structures, parental attachment, association with delinquent friends, and self-reported delinquent behavior are generally supported. Few differences are observed in separate analyses for males and females. Although the results raise questions about Colvin and Pauly's emphasis on a reconceptualized construct of social class, their incorporation of family and school compliance structures in their causal model is a promising contribution to the development of integrated theories of delinquency.