This study reports a cross-cultural test of Social Learning Theory using direct measures of social learning constructs and focusing on the causal structure implied by the theory. Overall, the results strongly confirm the main thrust of the theory. Prior criminal reinforcement and current crime-favorable definitions are highly related in all three…

This article builds on an important but underdeveloped social science concept--the "scene" as a cluster of urban amenities--to contribute to social science theory and subspecialties such as urban and rural, class, race and gender studies. Scenes grow more important in less industrial, more expressively-oriented and contingent societies where…

The sociology of aging draws on a broad array of theoretical perspectives and social theories from several disciplines, but rarely has it developed its own theories or theoretical perspectives. We build on past work to further advance and empirically test a model of mental health framed in terms of structural theorizing and situated within the…

Using national longitudinal data on 10,860 adolescents, a comparative analysis of community contextual effects on delinquency examined variables derived from three theories. Youths in areas of high male joblessness who experienced stressful life events or little parental supervision were especially likely to be involved in delinquency. The…