| This paper investigates the role of norm enforcement and normative
commitments in the transition from adolescence to adulthood. Drawing on
longitudinal data of two cohorts of high-school students in Toronto, we
examine the relationships between community and familial norm enforcement,
individual risk-taking, direct and indirect contact with the police, and
normative ambivalence regarding rule-breaking and social norms of conduct.
This model posits that youth behaviors and normative settings are contingent on one another and produce unique outcomes when combined. Relying on two cohorts of data collected nearly 25 years apart (1976/2000) with rigorous controls for comparability, this paper provides the opportunity to examine the role of normative emdeddedness over a period of significant social and economic change, and its role as a form of social capital for urban youth experiencing the transition to adulthood.
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Updated 05/20/2006