Self-Report Delinquency Scale

A self-report delinquency (SRD) scale measures offending by asking respondents directly how often they have committed specific delinquent or criminal acts, rather than relying on arrests or convictions. The modern frequency-based approach was established by Delbert Elliott and Suzanne Ageton in 1980 for the National Youth Survey, designed to capture the full range and frequency of offending and to overcome the biases of official crime records.