Legal and Criminological Psychology (2000), 5, 153164 Printed in Great Britain 153

2000 The British Psychological Society

Childrens and adolescents stereotypes of

tattooed people as delinquent

Kevin Durkin* and Stephen Houghton

University of Western Australia, Australia

Purpose. Tattoos traditionally have been associated with criminality. This study
investigates the possibility that children and adolescents may be more likely to
associate tattooed than non-tattooed individuals with delinquent attributes.

Method. Children aged 6 to 16 years were presented with a series of illustrations

of three men (one of whom was tattooed), and in each case were requested to
decide which individual best tted a negative (delinquent), positive (prosocial) or
neutral description.

Results. Participants revealed a strong bias to associate the tattooed individuals

with the negative attributes, but little tendency to associate them with the positive
or neutral attributes. There was some evidence of an increase in the bias during
middle childhood.

Conclusions. Children appear to acquire by at least age 6 strong negative

stereotypes of persons with tattoos. This has implications for childrens perform-
ance as witnesses in certain contexts; it also indicates that young people electing
to obtain tattoos are aware of the criminal stigma attached to this form of body
marking.

This study investigates childrens and adolescents stereotypes of people with

tattoos: in particular the association of tattoos with antisocial and delinquent
behaviour. There are several reasons why the topic is of interest to legal and
criminological psychologists, relating to the biasing in uence of stereotypes on
social and legal judgments and to the developmental context within which some
young people elect to obtain tattoos, thereby placing themselves at risk of being
stigmatized as delinquent.
The presence of tattoos on a persons body has long been associated with images
of criminality (Hamburger & Lacovara, 1963; Newman, 1982; Sperry, 1991;
Steward, 1990). Clearly, there is more than a kernel of truth in this particular
stereotype, as higher incidences of tattoos are reported among criminal and
psychiatrically disturbed populations (Buhrich & Morris, 1982; Doll, 1988; Farrow,
Schwartz, & Vanderleeuw, 1991; Loimer & Werner, 1992), but many non-criminal
*Requests for reprints should be addressed to Professor Kevin Durkin, Department of Psychology, University of
Western Australia, Nedlands, Western Australia 6907, Australia (e-mail: kevin@psy.uwa.edu.au).
154 Kevin Durkin and Stephen Houghton
individuals also have tattoos (Armstrong, 1994; Hanna, 1995; Houghton, Durkin, &
Turbett, 1995; Houghton, Durkin, Turbett, Parry, & Odgers, 1996). Irrespective of
a persons actual criminality, wearing tattoos may render him or her vulnerable to
the negative expectations of others (Stuppy, Armstrong, & Casals-Ariet, 1998); in
legal contexts, such biases may include the greater likelihood of blame or
punishment. There is evidence that members of the public hold stereotypical
notions about the physical appearance of criminals (chie y, facial characteristics;
see Bull, 1979; Bull & Green, 1980) and that these stereotypes can sometimes
in uence juridic judgments unfavourably (Goldstein, Chance, & Gilbert, 1984;
Macrae & Shepherd, 1989; Saladin, Saper, & Breen, 1988; Shoemaker, South, &
Lowe, 1973; but see Bull and Rumsey, 1988, for a discussion of exceptions).
Although the impact of tattoos on judgments of criminality has not been the focus
of comparable experimental research, there is anecdotal and survey evidence from
both delinquents (Grumet, 1983; Taylor, 1968) and non-criminal members of the
public (Armstrong & Murphy, 1997; Houghton, Durkin, & Turbett, 1995; Stuppy
et al., 1998) that this aspect of physical appearance often evokes negative appraisals
from the authorities or from the community in general.
If it can be demonstrated that stereotypes associating tattoos and criminality do
in uence peoples judgments of others, then this would have implications for ones
knowledge of biases in contexts such as witnessing, identi cation, jury decision-
making and sentencing. The present study investigates whether young people are
prone to such biases when they are asked to assess the likelihood of an individuals
involvement in antisocial/delinquent behaviours. Although children are not
involved in all of the legal processes mentioned above, they do serve as witnesses
and it is important to be aware of any biases that they may bring to the process.
Furthermore, any stereotypes that are widely held in childhood can reasonably be
expected to endure and may have long-term in uence on judgments of others.
There are additional reasons for investigating the development of beliefs about
tattoos. Involvement in tattooing in adolescence is at least correlated with
delinquency (Farrington, 1998; Farrow et al., 1991; Taylor, 1968, 1970), yet very
little is known of the development of the relevant beliefs in the young. If young
people do have stereotyped beliefs about persons with tattoos, then this has
implications for the social standing of those who obtain them (e.g. in terms of the
image they project). Previous investigators have noted that adolescents who obtain
tattoos are at risk of being perceived by peers as troublecausers and are more likely
to be recruited by delinquent peers to collaborate in antisocial or criminal activity
(Grumet, 1983; Taylor, 1968).
Social-cognitive developmental theory and research lead to the expectation of
developmental changes in attitudes towards people with tattoos. Tattoos serve to
render individuals physically distinctive, and there is extensive evidence from
studies of the development of prejudice that from an early age children categorize
others by appearance and are prone to view members of outgroups negatively
(Aboud, 1988; Doyle & Aboud, 1995; Powlishta, Serbin, Doyle, & White, 1994).
For example, Powlishta et al. (1994) found that children throughout the elementary
school years demonstrated clear signs of prejudice in response to people of
diV erent ethnicity, gender or bodyweight.
 Stereotypes and tattoos 155
Aboud (1988) proposes that there is an aV ectiveperceptualcognitive transition
in childrens reactions to others. On her account, young children are often wary of
most strangers, then begin gradually to distinguish and to dislike people with
diV erent visible properties, but later (as a consequence of social-cognitive devel-
opment) come to appreciate the arbitrary nature of many social distinctions. A
growing body of evidence supports Abouds thesis that biases are strongest in
young children but become more exible (though still detectable) during the
elementary school years (Aboud, 1988; Powlishta et al., 1994). On this basis, it
could be anticipated that similar developmental patterns obtain in respect of other
physical characteristics, and that bias against tattooed people would be strongest
among younger children and less pronounced among individuals in middle
childhood and adolescents.
A slightly diV erent possibility is that biases against tattooed people may increase
during middle childhood but reduce in adolescence (i.e. an inverted U-pattern of
change with age). The basis for this expectation is threefold. First, although tattoos
mark people out as diV erent, they are less pronounced than other physical
characteristics, such as ethnicity, body size or gender, and their social signi cance
is more subtle. Hence, they may have less salience and less meaning for younger
children. Secondly, insofar as tattoos are associated with unconventional social
aYliations and delinquent behaviour, young children could be expected to be less
informed as to prevailing values about middle-class respectability, and therefore
less aware of negative connotations of voluntary body markings. Children in middle
childhood are likely to be better informed, and also tend to endorse social
conventions (Turiel, 1983); hence, some increases is negativity towards tattoos
might be expected from young to middle childhood. Adolescents, however, are
more likely to question or reject social conventions (Turiel, 1983) and to challenge
adult standards of acceptable appearance (Brown, 1990; Youniss, 1980); adoles-
cents may therefore be more tolerant of, or sympathetic to, the notion of tattoos.
Thirdly, many adolescents do acquire tattoos (Armstrong & McConnell, 1994;
Armstrong & Murphy, 1997; Hanna, 1995; Litt, 1994; Martin, 1997), which suggests
that at least some persons in this age range have begun to nd them attractive, for
whatever reason. Indeed, surveys of people with tattoos show that the professed
motives for acquiring this form of body marking include improving their
appearance, asserting self-distinctiveness, projecting a tough image and sexual
attractiveness (Houghton, Durkin, & Turbett, 1995)personal and social issues
typically of great interest to adolescents (Durkin, 1995).
In sum, social-cognitive research converges on an expectation that negative
stereotypes about tattooed people should reduce somewhat in adolescence, but
provides mixed indications concerning developments in childhood. One possibility,
extrapolating from research into the development of prejudice, is that negative
beliefs should decline during middle childhood because of greater exibility in
social reasoning, while another is that negative beliefs may be heightened during
this period because of childrens greater readiness to accept social conventions
about appearance and behaviour.
Research directly investigating childrens beliefs and attitudes concerning tattoos
is not extensive, but some preliminary evidence is available from a focus group
156 Kevin Durkin and Stephen Houghton
study with children aged 6 to 17 years (Houghton, Durkin, & Carroll, 1995).
Houghton et al. presented children with slides of tattooed individuals, varying the
extent and the boldness of the tattoos. Even the youngest participants in the age
range tested demonstrated strong negative associations with these body markings.
For example, participants expressed unprompted revulsion at the sight of people
with tattoos, supposed that they might have low status jobs or be unemployed, and
asserted that they may well be criminals. However, there were also signs of more
ambivalent attitudes towards tattoos among adolescent participants: some, for
example, indicated that some tattoos are OK, and seemed to regard them as
fashion accessories or social statements. These ndings are consistent with the
inference that a shift in attitudes and behaviour may come about in some
adolescents.
Although focus group research provides a useful starting point to investigations
of relatively uncharted areas, it is limited as a guide to the extent to which young
people subscribe to particular beliefs or attitudes. The social context of the research
setting may exaggerate the salience of particular attitudes, and some participants
may go along with anothers point of view in uenced by the authority with which
it is voiced.
The present study sought to investigate the extent to which children and
adolescents associate tattooed individuals with antisocial and delinquent attributes
and behaviours. Because the authors wished to investigate possible developments
over a wide age range (6 to 16 years), they chose a methodology which minimized
dependence on literacy abilities and which might reasonably be expected to be
meaningful and interesting to young people through this span. Participants were
presented with a guessing game in which they had to make a series of judgments
concerning which individual from a set of three pictured men best tted a brief
verbal description. One of the men was tattooed. Each description concerned an
attribute or behaviour that had been predetermined to be negative, positive or
neutral.
Because the association of tattoos with deviant or criminal behaviour is
historically entrenched in Western cultures (Sperry, 1991; Steward, 1990), and
because Houghton et al. (1995) had found preliminary evidence that children shared
these social stereotypes, it was expected that participants would be likely to
associate tattooed people with delinquent behaviour. On the basis of the social-
cognitive developmental literature summarized above, evidence from Houghton
et al.s (1995) focus group study and the survey evidence con rming the attractions
of tattooing among adolescent cohorts (Armstrong & McConnell, 1994; Armstrong
& Murphy, 1997), it was predicted that negative stereotypes of tattooed individuals
should be stronger in preadolescents than in adolescents.

Method
Participants
In all, 340 children and adolescents participated in the study. Children were recruited in the following
age groups: 6 years (N = 46); 8 years (N = 44); 10 years (N = 64); 12 years (N = 81); 14 years
 Stereotypes and tattoos 157
(N = 57); and 16 years (N = 48). They were recruited from three primary schools and one high school
located in lower to middle-class socio-economic areas of a large Australian city. Two full classes were
selected randomly from each year group, and nal participation was dependent upon consent. The
children were of predominantly European Australian backgrounds, with no Aboriginal participants. (It
is possible that Aboriginal people may have diV erent perceptions of tattoos because traditional body
markings have higher status in some Aboriginal communities.)

Instrumentation
The task was presented in the form of a pictorial booklet entitled Who is it?. The booklet consisted
of 20 A4 pages (29.5 3 21 cm) of illustrations (two practice pages, plus 18 test pages). Each page
displayed three diV erent men, one of whom was tattooed (see Fig. 1). The illustrations were obtained
from a professional artist who was asked to provide drawings of young men in casual clothing. Of
these, one third were depicted with tattoos visible on their arm. The tattoos were drawn at medium
size (i.e. representing a marking that would occupy about 814 cm of an adult males arm); the goal
was to present tattoos that were visible but not overwhelming. Neutral designs (such as the outline
of a shield, an anchor, a young womans face, a name, ags) were used to avoid direct symbolism of
aggression (e.g. skull and crossbones, daggers or similar were not depicted).
It was important to ensure that no particular style of appearance co-varied with presence of a
tattoo. The artist was asked to vary the mens hair (e.g. curly, short, crew, medium, long, balding, pony
tail, combed, uncombed), their clothes (e.g. jeans, diV erent styles of trousers, diV erent styles of shorts,
sportswear, swimming trunks, T-shirt with short sleeves, T-shirt with cut away sides, short sleeved
shirt, regular shirt with sleeves rolled up) so that on any page the three gures were readily
distinguishable and across the set as a whole there was a wide range of appearance details. The
arrangement of men on each page was random. The authors took the set of pictures in random order
and selected one gure per page to be tattooed, taking in turn the leftmost gure on one page, the
centre gure on the next, the rightmost on the next, and so on until each page was completed. The
nal booklet was assembled in random order using a random numbers table.
Each set of illustrations appeared on a separate page. Below each set of three men a statement was
typed in large font. The statement declared that one of the men had committed recently a positive act,
a negative act or a neutral act (i.e. one act was described to accompany each three-person illustration).
In all, there were 18 acts, six of each type. Below each set, the question (identical in all 18 cases) asked
simply Who is it?. Preliminary work with primary school children and young adolescents had
indicated that this wording was the most readily understood. The illustrations featured male gures
only because pilot work indicated that the stereotypes associated with tattoo diV ered according to the
gender of the tattooed person (female tattoos were often associated with decorativeness and sex
appeal).
The statements were generated by asking postgraduate students (informed as to the general purpose
of the study) to suggest a list of positive, negative and neutral behaviours that might be enacted by
adults. Items were selected from these on the basis of suitability for use with children, and plausibility
in everyday life (e.g. extreme acts of malevolence or virtue were discarded). The sentences were then
given to another set of adults who were asked to rate the acts described as positive, negative or
neutral. Only acts receiving unanimous judgment in the same category were selected. The nal
sentences were written in as plain English as possible, with advice from teachers, and then read and
evaluated for clarity by primary school students. The children could read all of the statements easily.
The positive, negative and neutral statements are presented in the Appendix.

Proced ure
The task was administered to children in their regular classrooms. It was introduced as a guessing
game, and all children received a booklet. Children rst entered basic information on their school year
and gender in spaces provided on the front of the booklets. Then they proceeded to complete two
practice sets of pictures on the rst two pages. To minimize any possible diYculties with reading, the
158 Kevin Durkin and Stephen Houghton

Figure 1. Example of sets of illustrations used in booklet (each page contains one three-man set).

instructor read out each statement and explained that the child should respond to the Who is it?
question by placing a mark in one box. No other information was provided about the purpose of the
exercise (e.g. no reference was made at any point to tattoos).
 Stereotypes and tattoos 159
Table 1. Mean stereotype ratings by age (SDs in parentheses)

Positive Neutral Negative

6 years 2.24 (1.14) 1.50 (1.17) 3.17 (1.18)

8 years 1.86 (0.91) 1.14 (0.96) 3.91 (1.07)
10 years 1.17 (0.97) 1.23 (0.92) 4.27 (0.93)
12 years 1.40 (0.93) 1.32 (0.97) 4.25 (1.07)
14 years 1.44 (1.05) 1.33 (0.79) 3.84 (0.96)
16 years 1.46 (1.05) 1.52 (1.15) 3.73 (1.33)

It was stressed that only one box should be ticked per page. Children were advised that if they were
not sure, then to make their best guess. They were instructed when to turn the page. Children in the
youngest age group were tested in small groups of about six to allow the adult to check for any
diYculties in following instructions. The procedure proved problem free at all age levels, and in each
group the task was completed in approximately 20 min. Students seemed to enjoy the exercise. When
it was over, participants were asked what they had thought was the purpose of the exercise: none
mentioned tattoos.

Results
The authors interest lay in how often children attributed positive, negative or
neutral characteristics to individuals with tattoos. Hence, scores were computed for
each type of attribute by scoring 1 every time the participant identi ed the tattooed
man, and 0 when either of the other gures was identi ed. For each participant,
this provided three stereotype scores (positive, negative and neutral choices), each
with a possible range from 0 to 6.
Mean scores are presented in Table 1. In a preliminary analysis, gender was
included as a factor. No main eV ect for gender was obtained and no interaction
involving gender reached signi cance; hence, gender was not retained as a variable
in the analyses to be reported. The data summarized in Table 1 were subjected to
a 6 (Age) 3 3 (Stereotype: Negative/Positive/Neutral) mixed analysis of variance,
with repeated measures on the latter factor. This analysis revealed no main eV ect of
Age (F(5,328) = .44, n.s.). There was a very strong main eV ect of Stereotype
(F(2,328) = 595.83, p < .001), re ecting the much greater likelihood that the
tattooed individual would be identi ed when the statement was negative. However,
there was also an Age 3 Stereotype interaction (F(10,328) = 6.93, p < .001).
The interaction is illustrated in Fig. 2. As can be seen, overall, participants rarely
attributed a positive or neutral act to the tattooed person, and frequently attributed
the negative act to him. However, among the younger children these diV erences are
less pronounced, and there was even some tendency to attribute positive acts to the
tattooed man. Post hoc comparisons con rmed that, at each age level, negative
stereotype scores were signi cantly higher than positive or neutral scores: for both
the 6- and 8-year-olds the diV erence between positive and neutral scores was
signi cant (ps < .05), while at each of the older levels these scores were virtually
identical.
160 Kevin Durkin and Stephen Houghton

Figure 2. Selection of tattooed man as a function of description type and childs age.

By age 10, there were very few positive or neutral acts associated with the
tattooed men. There was also a tendency for children in the younger and older age
ranges to attribute less negative acts to the tattooed individuals. A simple main
eV ect analysis of negative stereotypes by grade showed that there were signi cant
diV erences among the age groups on this measure (F(5,334) = 7.483, p < .001). Post
hoc comparisons by means of the ScheV e procedure (ps < .05) indicated that only the
diV erences between the 6-year-olds and the 10- and 12-year-olds were reliable.
T tests against chance were conducted, and these con rmed that the negative
scores for each age group were signi cantly higher than would have been expected
of participants who were choosing at random. Most of the group means for
positive and neutral choices were signi cantly below chance levels; the exceptions
were the 6- and 8-year-olds positive choices, and the 16-year-olds neutral choices.
In short, all age groups were prone to attribute negative actions to tattooed
individuals and attributions of neutral or positive actions to tattooed individuals
were usually below chance level.

Discussion
These results indicate that stereotypes of tattooed individuals as prone to
antisocial or delinquent acts are strongly established among children and adoles-
cents. The participants were presented repeatedly with diV erent sets of three
individuals of whom they had no speci c information apart from appearance.
Other details of appearance, such as long hair, bohemian looks, casual or scruV y
dress, were randomized, so that responses cannot be explained in terms of some
cluster of characteristics that together render an individual particularly distinctive.
 Stereotypes and tattoos 161
The crucial diV erence was the presence of a tattooand as can be seen in Fig. 1 the
tattoos, although intended to be visible, were not markedly outrageous in design or
size. Recall that the pattern of responses cannot be explained as owing to a
perseverative response bias (with participants predominantly selecting the tattooed
man) since tattooed individuals were rarely chosen when positive or neutral acts
were described. Consistent with the focus group ndings reported by Houghton
et al. (1995), these data aYrm that from a relatively early age, and through to
mid-adolescence, many young people regard tattooed individuals unfavourably.
It was found that younger children (6-year-olds) were slightly less likely than
older children to associate the tattooed individuals with delinquent behaviour. The
pattern of results is broadly, though not perfectly, consistent with an inverted
U-shaped distribution of age-related disapprobation of tattoos. That is, participants
in middle childhood are more negative than participants in the early school years or
adolescence (though the latter diV erence did not reach statistical signi cance). The
results are not entirely consistent with those reported in the literature on the
development of prejudices concerning other aspects of appearance, such as
ethnicity, gender and bodyweight, where the strongest prejudices are typically
found among younger children (Aboud, 1988; Powlishta et al., 1994). As noted
earlier, it may be that the presence of a tattoo is not as perceptually salient to a
6-year-old as these other characteristics. Researchers investigating childrens
reactions to facially deformed adults have reported an apparent absence of
negative stereotyping among young (5-year-old) children and an increase in
middle to late childhood (Elliott, Bull, James, & Lansdown, 1986; Rumsey, Bull, &
Gahagan, 1986). It may be that children aged 5 or 6 are less aware of detailed
social stereotypes associated with physical marking. Even so, while there is some
evidence of an increase during middle childhood, the study did nd strong,
appearance-based, stereotyped beliefs among young people throughout the
present sample. The clearest overall conclusion from these data is that the
participants displayed a strong tendency to associate the tattooed males with
the delinquent attributes.
In the face of the strength and apparent durability of this stereotype, what is the
signi cance of the fact that increasing numbers of Western youths are attracted to
tattoos (Armstrong & Murphy, 1997; Hanna, 1995; Litt, 1994)? Although the
present study was not concerned with motives for obtaining tattoos, it does suggest
that at least part of the background to experimentation with body marking is a
widespread association between tattoos and delinquency. Hence, it appears that
young people obtain tattoos either despite or because of this image. Furthermore,
those who do become tattooed know that they are likely to be perceived as
associated with challenging, tough or illegal behaviour. In other words, some young
people may nd that tattoos help to cultivate a particular social reputation. This
would be consistent with Emler and Reichers (1995) arguments that delinquent
reputations are constructed on the basis of deliberate choices of action and social
presentation. It is stressed here that by no means all tattooed youths are intent on
criminal careers, but most do have to reconcile their markings with their awareness
of the negative social stereotypes that they themselves are likely to have held since
childhood. Research comparing the stereotypes of adolescents who themselves
162 Kevin Durkin and Stephen Houghton
have tattoos with the stereotypes of peers who do not could be informative in this
respect.
The strength of the stereotype indicates that tattooed people may well be at
greater risk of being associated with crime by young witnesses. This may have
important practical consequences in contexts of identi cation. As suggested above,
if stereotypes of tattooed people become entrenched in childhood, their in uence
may endure into adulthood. Future research could usefully examine the impact of
defendants tattoos on eyewitness behaviour and adult jurors decisions.
In sum, the present ndings support the conclusion that, among young people,
there are strong stereotypes of delinquency associated with tattoos. This is
important, because it forms part of the contemporary socio-cultural backdrop
within which young people evaluate others and formulate their own intentions and
decisions concerning the appeal of permanent body markings. The fact that many
adolescents do develop an interest in tattoos, exposing themselves to the very
stigma they may once have upheld, highlights a pressing need for research into the
peer relations and social-cognitive processes associated with their decisions. Finally,
in contexts involving young witnesses and tattooed suspects or defendants, legal
professionals should be aware of the possible in uence of covert biases because of
this aspect of appearance.

Acknowledgements
This research was supported by a grant to the authors from the Australian Rotary Health Research
Fund. The authors are also grateful to the participating schools for the generous provision of time and
facilitates, to Linda JeV rey for artwork and to two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on an
earlier version of the manuscript.

References
Aboud, F. (1988). Children and prejud ice. Oxford: Blackwell.
Armstrong, M. L. (1994). Adolescents and tattoos: Marks of identity or deviancy? Dermatology Nursing,
6, 119124.
Armstrong, M. L., & McConnell, C. (1994). Tattooing in adolescents: More common than you think.
The phenomenon and the risks. Journal of School Nursing, 10, 2633.
Armstrong, M. L., & Murphy, K. P. (1997). Tattooing: Another adolescent risk behaviour warranting
health education. Applied Nursing Research, 10, 181189.
Brown, B. B. (1990). Peer groups and peer cultures. In S. S. Feldman & G. R. Elliot (Eds.), At the
threshold. The d eveloping ad olescent (pp. 171196). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Buhrich, N., & Morris, G. (1982). Signi cance of tattoos in male psychiatric patients. Australian and
New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 16, 18651889.
Bull, R. (1979). The in uence of stereotypes on person identi cation. In D. P. Farrington, K.
Hawkins, & S. M. Lloyd-Bostock (Eds.), Psychology, law and legal processes (pp. 181194). London:
Macmillan.
Bull, R., & Green, J. (1980). The relationship between physical appearance and criminality. Med icine,
Science and the Law, 20, 7983.
Bull, R., & Rumsey, N. (1988). The social psychology of facial appearance. New York: Springer-Verlag.
Doll. D. C. (1988). Tattooing in prison and HIV infections. Lancet, 1, 6667.
Doyle, A. B., & Aboud, F. E. (1995). A longitudinal study of white childrens prejudice as a
social-cognitive development. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 41, 209228.
Durkin, K. (1995). Developmental social psychology: From infancy to old age. Oxford: Blackwell.
 Stereotypes and tattoos 163
Elliott, M., Bull, R., James, D., & Lansdown, R. (1986). Childrens and adults reactions to
photographs taken before and after facial surgery. Journal of Maxillofacial Surgery, 14, 1821.
Emler, N., & Reicher, S. (1995). Ad olescence and d elinquency. Oxford: Blackwell.
Farrington, D. P. (1998). Youth crime and antisocial behaviour. In A. Campbell & S. Muncer (Eds.),
The social child (pp. 353392). Hove: Psychology Press/Erlbaum.
Farrow, J. A., Schwartz, R. H., & Vanderleeuw, J. (1991). Tattooing behavior in adolescence. A
comparison study. American Journal of Diseases of Children, 145, 184187.
Goldstein, A. G., Chance, J. E., & Gilbert, B. (1984). Facial stereotypes of good guys and bad guys:
A replication and extension. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society, 22, 549552.
Grumet, G. W. (1983). Psychodynamic implications of tattoos. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 53,
482492.
Hamburger, E., & Lacovara, D. (1963). A study of tattoos in inmates at a federal correctional
institution: Its physical and psychological implications. Military Medicine, 128, 12051211.
Hanna, J. A. (1995). Tattoos: Fashion statement or health risk? Canad ian Nurse, 91, 3135.
Houghton, S., Durkin, K., & Carroll, A. (1995). Childrens and adolescents awareness of the physical
and health risks associated with tattooing: A focus group study. Ad olescence, 30, 971988.
Houghton, S., Durkin, K., & Turbett, Y. (1995). Public health aspects of tattooing among Australian
adults. Australian Journal of Public Health, 19, 425427.
Houghton, S., Durkin, K., Turbett, Y., Parry, E., & Odgers, P. (1996). Body marking practices in high
school students. Journal of Ad olescent Health, 19, 420425.
Litt, I. F. (1994). Self-graYti? Self-image? Self-destruction? Tattoos and adolescents. Journal of
Ad olescent Health, 15, 198.
Loimer, N. W., & Werner, E. (1992). Tattooing and high-risk behaviour among drug addicts. Med icine
and Law, 11, 167174.
Macrae, C. N., & Shepherd, J. W. (1989). Do criminal stereotypes mediate juridic judgements? British
Journal of Social Psychology, 28, 189191.
Martin, A. (1997). On teenagers and tattoos. Journal of the American Acad emy of Child and Ad olescent
Psychiatry, 36, 860861.
Newman, G. (1982). The implications of tattooing in prisoners. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 43,
231234.
Powlishta, K. K., Serbin, L. A., Doyle, A.-B., & White, D. R. (1994). Gender, ethnic, and body type
biases: The generality of prejudice in childhood. Developmental Psychology, 30, 526536.
Rumsey, N., Bull, R., & Gahagan, D. (1986). A developmental study of childrens stereotyping of
facially deformed adults. British Journal of Psychology, 77, 269274.
Saladin, M., Saper, Z., & Breen, L. (1988). Perceived attractiveness and attributions of criminality:
What is beautiful is not criminal. Canad ian Journal of Criminology, 30, 251259.
Shoemaker, D. J., South, D. R., & Lowe, J. (1973). Facial stereotypes of deviants and judgements of
guilt or innocence. Social Forces, 51, 427433.
Sperry, K. (1991). Tattoos and tattooing. Part I: History and methodology. American Journal of Forensic
Med icine and Pathology, 12, 313319.
Stewart, S. M. (1990). Bad boys and tough tattoos: A social history of the tattoo with gangs, sailors and street-corner
punks 19501965. New York: Hawarth Press.
Stuppy, D. J., Armstrong, M. L., & Casals-Ariet, C. (1998). Attitudes of health care providers and
students towards tattooed people. Journal of Ad vanced Nursing, 27, 11651170.
Taylor, A. J. (1968). A search among borstal girls for the psychological and social signi cance of their
tattoos. British Journal of Criminology, 8, 170185.
Taylor, A. J. (1970). Tattooing among male and female o V enders of diV erent ages in diV erent types of
institutions. Genetic Psychology Monographs, 81, 81119.
Turiel, E. (1983). The d evelopment of social knowled ge. Morality and convention. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Youniss, J. (1980). Parents and peers: Social d evelopment. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

Received 26 January 1999; revised version received 20 July 1999

164 Kevin Durkin and Stephen Houghton
Appendix
Statements used in booklet
Negative
beat someone up
uses drugs
carries a knife
hates the police
is a trouble causer
is always looking for a ght

Positive
is the captain of a football team
is kind to animals
is helpful
sent some owers to his mum for her birthday
collects money for charity
works in a childrens hospital

Neutral
likes watching TV
runs fastest
likes listening to music
has one brother and two sisters
bought a new pair of shoes yesterday
plays the piano