Juvenile delinquency and moral development

This article compares moral development of delinquent and nondelinquent adolescents. The subjects, 249 males and females ranging in age from 13 to 17, were administered a morality test for children including the following measures: resistance to temptation, moral stage, feelings after offense, judgment about the severity of punishment, and confession. In most measures of moral development, nondelinquents performed better than delinquents. With few exceptions, females were found to score higher than males on the various moral measures. The findings are discussed in terms of Hoffman's (1977) conceptualization regarding the influence of various disciplining techniques on moral development.