本研究之目的為探討台灣一般市民對青少年犯罪原因之認知。本研究於2003年3月郵寄研究問卷予隨機抽取之台中市1000名市民，共回收343份有效問卷（女性208名、男性135名）。研究問卷為戴、大淵（2002）以日本人為樣本之問卷繁體中文直譯版。本研究要求受試者針對青少年犯罪之五大領域原因（人格、家庭、學校、地區、社會）進行64題之Likert式五點量表認知評估。針對各領域進行主成分分析，斜交轉軸因子分析，五領域合計抽出20個原因因子，顯示台灣一般市民對於青少年犯罪原因有廣泛的複數認知，其中對於人格、家庭、學校以及社會等領域之相關問題有較強認知。年代X性別X因子之多變量變異數分析結果顯示：年長者較重視人格問題而年輕人較重視外在環境因素。男性受試者較女性受試者重視家庭因素。本研究並探討歸因理論（基本歸因誤謬、自利歸因、團體利益歸因）等對一般市民之原因認知之影響。

The purpose of the present study was to examine what the Taiwanese citizens perceived as the causes of juvenile delinquency. Questionnaire was mailed to 1000 people who were randomly selected from the residents in Tai-chung, and obtained 343 respondents (208 females and 135 males). 64 items were rated to measure the possible causes of delinquency in the five domains (personality, family, school, community, and society). Factor analysis conducted in each domain established 20 dimensions as a total. Although the participants perceived multiplicity causes across the domains and essentially had a similar perception structure as the Japanese sample (Tai & Ohbuchi, 2002). The Taiwanese people perceived delinquency especially to the problems involved in personality, family, school, and society. Further, the older participants perceived the causes in the personality domains more serious than the younger ones, while the younger participants perceived the external environmental causes more serious. The male participants perceived family problems more serious than the female ones. Participants' perception of causes of delinquency may be influenced by the fundamental attribution bias, group serving attribution bias, and self serving attribution bias.