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delinquency Definition

de·lin·quency (di liŋ′kwən sē)

noun pl. delinquencies -·cies

  1. failure or neglect to do what duty or law requires
  2. ☆ an overdue debt, tax, etc.
  3. a fault: misdeed
  4. ☆ behavior, esp. by the young, that is antisocial or in violation of the law

Etymology: LL delinquentia < L delinquens, prp. of delinquere, to leave undone, commit a fault < de-, from + linquere, to leave < IE base *leikw-, to leave > Gr leipein, to leave, OE læn, loan

delinquency Synonyms

delinquency

n.

dereliction, wrongdoing, misconduct; see crime 1, 2, default, fault 2.

delinquency Law Definition

n

  1. A failure, by act or omission, to perform a legal or contractual obligation.
  2. an unpaid amount due. 
delinquency Usage Examples

Converse of object

  • pardon: Sir John Danvers carried to the Lords for their Concurrence, the Ordinance for pardoning the Delinquency of Mr. Coke.
  • increase: Recently the psychologists and criminologists have come to admit that the absence of parental guidance contributes to increasing delinquency.
  • cause: Cloward and Ohlin ( 1961 ) regard truancy as part of a wider delinquency caused by " blocked opportunity " within school.

Preposition: at

  • age: The report claims that an attachment to teachers at age 13 was related to lower levels of misbehavior and delinquency at age 15.

Adjective modifier

  • juvenile: Children in such communities are at lower risk of teen pregnancy, child abuse, drug use or juvenile delinquency.
  • youthful: The practical application of these theories in professional intervention, from youthful delinquency to entrenched criminal careers, will be examined.
  • serious: By contrast, these and other factors covered by the study could not explain the difference between boys and girls in serious delinquency.
  • self-reported: Thus social control theory offers a fair explanation for the results of this study of self-reported delinquency.
  • moral: It seems to me an obsolete speculation, but it implies no moral delinquency.
  • previous: Even relying on previous delinquency alone does not comply with EC law if there is no examination of each individual case.

Modifies a noun

  • prevalence: Thus it would seem that lack of supervision is associated with higher delinquency prevalence to a certain degree.
  • rate: Many credit unions have a history of poorly performing loans and high delinquency rates.
  • notice: You can avoid delinquency notices and costly penalty fees by completing all reports by the required deadlines.
  • level: However, Flint said it is too early to say whether delinquency levels had peaked.

Noun used with modifier

  • youth: Everything was going haywire: increasing crime, youth violence, youth delinquency.
  • loan: Those credit unions that adopted the village banking add-on saw a sharp decline in loan delinquency versus those that did not.