Innocence Towards Crime : Role of Self-esteem and Aggression in Perpetuating Delinquency

This study was conducted to explore the role of predisposing risk factors such as self-esteem and aggression(i.e., physical, verbal, anger and hostility) in the development of delinquency in adolescents.On the basis of previous literature review it was hypothesized that delinquent adolescent would score low on the variable of self-esteem as compared to their non-delinquents counterparts. Also it was hypothesized that delinquent adolescent would score high on over all measure of aggression as well as on subtypes of aggression such as verbal aggression, physical aggression, hostility and anger as compared to their non-delinquent counterparts. Sample of present study comprised of 206 adolescents among them 101(49%) were juvenile delinquents and 105(51%) were non-delinquents of age 12 years to 18 year belonging to low socioeconomic status. The results showed significant difference on variable of self-esteem between delinquents and non-delinquents. Delinquents were found to exhibit high level of aggression. However, no significant difference was found on the variable of anger. Prospects for future research have also been recommended on the basis of limitations drawn from study.