school), drug use, aggression, and delinquent behavior when students who fall behind in reading become marginalized as failures (Kingery et al., 1996). School failure undermines a student’s interest in and commitment to school and learning. Delinquent peer associations may also be a consequence of school failure when a student comes to reject academic achievement and prosocial behavior as legitimate goals and values. Feelings of isolation and a student’s perception that she is not receiving emotional support from caring adults also may play a role in the etiology of delinquent or aggressive behaviors (Gottfredson, 1997). Research has identified other factors at the community, family, and individual levels that influence the development of delinquent and/or aggressive behaviors, including the availability of criminogenic tools (e.g., weapons), community disorganization, family history of problem behavior, family conflict, and a history of early antisocial behavior (Howell, 1995).

Rolf Loeber, of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, cautioned that the relationship between delinquency and school performance should not be oversimplified. It may be that progression from delinquent behavior to school failure is contingent on other factors, since not every offending juvenile experiences school failure and not every failing student commits offenses.

In addition, not every act of delinquency affects school performance in the same way. The seriousness of delinquent behavior may determine whether and to what extent school performance suffers. It appears that poor school performance is a more severe problem among serious violent delinquents. In a review of the literature on the predictors of youth violence, Hawkins and his colleagues (1998) concluded that serious and violent delinquents had more school-related problems (e.g., low grades, truancy, suspension, dropping out) than nonviolent children.

Inversely, studies have found that students who do not perform well academically are more likely to be delinquent. The Cambridge Study on Delinquent Development and the Pittsburgh Youth Study have both found that low school achievement predicts adolescent delinquency (Maguin and Loeber, 1996). In a meta-analysis of studies that examined the relationship between academic performance and delinquency and interventions designed to improve school achievement and reduce offending, Maguin and Loeber (1996) found that poor school performance was related to the frequency of delinquent offending, the seriousness of offenses, and persistence in delinquency offending. Findings from this study highlight the importance of examining the effect of poor educational performance on delinquency over time—to think of a child’s development on a trajectory with multiple transition points (e.g., childhood to adolescence) along which key events occur.

There are, however, methodological issues that limit study findings.