Delinquency and Identity: Delinquency in an American Chinatown

In this groundbreaking book written in 1986 Chuen-Jim Sheu penetrated the popular veneer of crime in Chinatown as full of opium dens and organized crime revealing the challenges that Chinese immigrant youth faced in adapting to American life. His analysis of the process of assimilation revealed why some Chinese immigrant youth turned to juvenile delinquency and has been used as a model by a number of researchers ever since. This second edition comes at a time in the United States and many other countries East and West that are experiencing dramatic rises in immigration especially those of young males who are universally acknowledged to be the most prone to delinquency. The lessons learned in 1986 are just as relevant today especially with respect to the challenging questions of the relationships among identity assimilation adaptation and delinquency.