THE CONTEXT OF YOUTH CRIME: CRITICAL EXPLORATION OF PRECURSORS TO OFFENDING AND THE IMPLICATIONS FOR PREVENTION \ INTERVENTION SERVICES

Author: Iloka Benneth Chiemelie
Published: 29th March 2017

Introduction

For majority of the young people in the modern world, the conventional approaches that shape the associations and evolutions between school, family and work have been tested in different ways (Andrews and Bonta, 1998). The social relation that bring about a smooth procedure for socializing is continually failing; lifestyle routes are now more diverse and less foreseeable. The rearrangement of the labour market, the extended maturity gap (the time at which young adults depend on their families), and as agued, the limited chances that these young people have to become independent adults are some of the changes that have influenced level of family and friends relationship, educational prospects and choices, lifestyle and holiday activities, and participation in the labour market. Additionally, it should be noted that not only developed nations are facing these issues; as other nations are also under the pressure of young people experiencing transition from their juvenile to independence. Fast increase in global population, limited housing and care services, higher level of unemployment and underemployment of the youths, poverty, decrease in the power of native communities, congestion in poor urban zones, interference in educational systems and family disintegration are roughly of the issues that young people will have to handle (Bohn, 2001).

Currently, it has been noted that youths, irrespective of gender, country of residence or social origin are being subjected to certain individual risks and at the same time being presented with new individual opportunities – some of the having benefits while other have their self-harms (Ayers et al., 1999). In most case, these young people take advantages with illegal opportunities by committing different kinds of crimes, becoming hooked to drugs, and effecting violence on other youths..

It is indicated in statistical data that almost across all parts across the globe, the rate of youth crime is on the rise. In Western Europe for example, it was discovered that in regions studied, the arrest of juvenile delinquents and under-aged offenders did increase by about 30% between the period of mid-1980s and late 1990s. There is also a dramatic upsurge in the volume of delinquency across countries in transition since 1995, as findings does indicate that juvenile crime of different levels in many countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States and the Easter Europe have amplified by over 30 per cent. Majority of these illegal offenses are linked to drug misuse and consumption of excess alcohol (Hagell, 2002).  

Most of the studies in relation to juvenile delinquency have focused on youths as the offenders. In any case, it is important to note that the adolescents are also victims of delinquent acts or crime. There is also a continued threat of oppression, which is taking significant influence on how young men socialize as well as their perception of values and standards within the larger part of the society. In line with the above understanding, this research is geared towards understanding the precursors of youth offending, critical analysis of significant factors related to gender and crime, critical analysis of the risk factors, debate on individual risk factors and necessary preventive measures for eliminating (or at least significantly reducing the level of ) youth offending in the larger society.

Understanding precursors to youth offending

The severity and intensity of youth offences are firmed in general by the levels of social, cultural and economic circumstances obtainable in such country. Evidences does suggest that there is an increase in the level of juvenile crime across the globe as a result of economic decline, with special reference to parts of large cities. In most of the highlighted cases, it is evidence that street children turnout to become young offenders, as a result of having faced violence in their direct social setting or being observers to or sufferers of such violence themselves. Additionally, this group do have a low educational attachment, their gained basic social experiences from their families are normally not enough, and their socio-economic environment are shaped by under- or unemployment as well as higher rate of poverty (Hoge, 2001).

Therefore, it is always easy to find the grounds and circumstances of juvenile crime at each stages of the social arrangement: which can also include the society as a unit, institutions in the society, organizations and social groups, and the interpersonal relationship these juveniles have with the whole society. Thus, there are a wide range of factors that fosters individuals’ choice of delinquent careers and perpetuated consequence emanating from such delinquent behavior and some of these precursors are discussed below.

Economic and social factors

Juvenile delinquency normal arises due to negative outcomes of economic and social development, with particular reference to crisis in the economy, weaknesses of main institutions of the state (like governmental systems, systems of public schooling and aid, family etc.) and political instability (Hoge and Andrews, 2002). One thing with socio-economic instability is that it is normally linked to higher rate of unemployment and lower income levels among the youth, which in turn brings about an increase on the potential of these youth to be involved with criminal (and other related) activities.

Cultural factors

It has been noted that delinquent behavior are normally prevalent in social situations where the standards for acceptable conduct have crashed. Under such conditions, majority of the procedures that discourage people from obligating acts that are socially intolerable might have lost their significance to the vast majority of the members of the society (Lipsey and Wilson, 1998). As such, these youth seem to reply to this fracturing and destructive vicissitudes in the society by becoming part of a social rebellion, and engaging in both criminal and deviant activities. Good examples of such conditions would be the continued transformation of traditional civilizations and the following change brought about by higher advancement in technology; such shifts does bring about resulting effects on both how labour is formed and organized, social features, arrangements of living and lifestyle, and such changes does bring about an effect on structure of authority, forms of obedience, and the way these youths participate in political activities – and this can even go as far as influencing how they view reality (Catalano and Hawkins, 19916).

In both the developed and developing countries, the media continually create consumer standards that are considerably out of reach for majority of the families. However, these virtual reality are turned into a thing of life for majority of the juveniles, and some of them will even go to any extent to uphold such life standards even when they cannot pay for it. As not all the populace can access essential resources (which does include education, drills, empowerment and income, adequate housing, and health services), there are always cases of people who will not be able to legally achieve their goals. Thus, the difference between people’s ideal goals and socially accepted goals and the real-life prospects (that are sometimes limited) to attain such goals in legal ways does build a new sense of frustration to majority of the young people. This entails that criminal careers are then shaped as one of the forms for addressing these contradictions. As such, one of the motives why criminal behavior emerge is due to extreme emphasis on such social goals added to their limited means of attaining these goals.

Therefore, the potential for delinquent acts to occur in this setting does depend on numerous factors that are not only reflected in the inaccessibility of legal mans but likewise reflected on the extent of access that these young people have in relation to illegal opportunities. In some cases, juveniles that ae ignorant of the limitations that have been imposed on their behavior legally, are being influenced by more matured criminals. Majority of the people come to form bond with the borders of their group and shit their attention to drug usage for the expected expressive and psychological gains. Thus, the use of illegal drugs and alcohol by this juvenile groups does represent one of the major causes of delinquency, as they are normally pushed towards committing crimes in order to meet cash necessary for supporting their desired substance use.

Victimization

Although some children have been known to survive victimization with limited levels of adverse outcomes, there are numerous studies which indicate that victimization can actually bring about disruptive effects in the sequence of a child’s growth in major basic ways and it can also result to issues in the life span of such child. In the past decades, numerous studies have been conducted which does indicate that there is a clear relationship between victimization of youth and many issues in their life later on, with such issues including drug abuse, health problems, suicide, limited social relationship, and crime  (OVC, 1999; Kilpatrick et al., 2003; Wood et al., 2002). It has also been acknowledged in research that violent oppression in the course of puberty is actually a risk factor for local ferocity, violent crime victimization, and medication abuse in the later ages (Ford, 2002).

Even in cases where the victims were mare observant as opposite to being the straight victims, they can also be severely traumatized as children and carry on such chute of negative penalties down to their adult ages. Research have indicated that children who are visible to domestic and civic violence can actually become engaged in aggressive behavior, suffer anxiety and depression related issues, and build lower levels of social confidence and competence, show cases of posttraumatic symptoms such as increased arousal and emotional numbing, and experience poor academic performance (Colley-Quille et al., 1995; ABA, 2000; Osofsky, 1999).

It has also been reported in some research that environment with prevalence of chronic violence, for instance, living in neighborhoods where children are treated like those living in war zones, will result to the youth developing issues like helplessness, anxiety, numbness, featurelessness, and advanced difficulties with concentration. Also, children that live in such environment might actually become desensitized towards engaging in highly risky activities and threats and becoming part of dangerous groups as well as activities (Schwab-Stone et al., 1995).

It has also been found that adolescents respond to shocking issues in conducts that are different from the children. Qualms in relation to the memories of such issues can actually become part of them and force them to become angry or avoid necessary response system. These adolescents might actually form response to these issues by adopting dangerous reenactment behavior, protective regression and recklessness. As a result of their age and phase in moral growth, some of these youths might actually begin to feel ashamed and guilty of the traumatic events, with some found to experience fantasies towards retribution and revenge. Thus, victimization, irrespective of the age can actually result to offending among youths.        

Critical analysis of significant risk factors relating to gender and crime: a review of crime among ethnic minority youths

Researches from different countries (such as Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the Unites States) are in conformity that a minor but separate group of youths are actually having sever difficulties from adolescence that engage in dis-appropriate percentage of criminal offences. In the course of their childhood, they might actually become identified with the label sever conduct disorder, which is described by John Werry (2005) as: those who have defied adults, stolen, lied, hit other kids, might have set fires, are cruel to animals, bullies, verbally abusive kids, and intimidating others.

It has bene identified that the main reason behind the behavior of these children is as a result of long history of antisocial activities, constant substance use, impulsivity, hyperactivity, a past of aggressiveness, and male gender (McLaren, 2007).

It should be noted that these behavior do not arise out of isolation. These children have been found to share a history of being exposed to different forms of adversity. In researches, it has been demonstrated that the relationship between these adversities and outcomes are actually complex, which implies that negative outcomes are due to exposure to different forms of risks. These risks can include:

·         Adversities that are socioeconomic in nature;

·         Parental conflict and change;

·         The absence of parental supervision;

·         Lack of family affection and warmth;

·         Parental features that include criminal behavior, abuse of drugs, young mother, unemployment and sole parenting;

·         Harsh abuse and discipline;

·         Individual elements such as poor vocabulary and communication, poor level of literacy, less than average IQ, high level of novelty, skills and desire for thrill;

·         Peer rejection;

·         Deviant peers;

·         Levels of crime and norms in the community. (Fergusson and Horwood, 2003; Leventhal, 2003; McLaren, 2007; Wasserman et al., 2003; Williams et al., 2004)

In any case, it is vital to understand that different domains are covered by this risk factors, which include individual, school and community, and family. These domains are referred to as children social map by Garbarino (1995) and it does offer the cultural standards for normality, things that are impossible and things that are obvious. In cases where children are branded as criminals or having plain conduct ailment, these children will actually become problems to the society and the complex factors that bring about their behavior might actually be overlooked.

In the case of gender, it is widely acknowledged that males have higher rate of becoming juvenile delinquents. This is mainly due to the high level of pressure that the society puts on them, forcing them to undertake responsibilities that they might not naturally be due to. From early age, they conceive the idea that they are the heads of the family, and the must at all cost ensure sustainable good standards of living for the family. On a similar note, ethnic minorities are also featured more in juvenile delinquency than their counterparts. From childhood, they conceive the idea of hatred (especially against the ethnic majority) due to perceived high level of deprivation and dejection. Aside from that, being a minority also means that they have limited access to vital resources in most cases, which pushes them towards maintaining healthy living standards in the only way deemed possible (illegal).

Childhood risk factors and the concept of risk-focused crime prevention

The concept of risk-focused crime prevention is basic in both understanding and application, as it deals with identifying the main risks factors for offending and enacting necessary prevention mechanism in order to counteract these risks. There are normally related attempts designed to highly the main protective factors against offending and also to implement preventive approaches that will be used to enhance these issues. On normal accounts, knowledge about risks and protective factors are offered by longitudinal survey, while investigational and quasi-experimental lessons are used for the purpose of evaluating the impact of intervention and prevention programemes. In essence, risk-focused prevention does form the bridge between clarification and deterrence; fundamental and practical research; scholars, practitioners, and strategy makers (Farrington, 2000).

The concept of risk-focused deterrence was actually brought hooked on criminology from the field of medicine and public health by earlier initiators like Hawkins and Catalano (1992). In the field of medicine, this approach has actually been adopted for numerous years towards handling the issues of health like heart disease and cancer. For instance, the risk factors that have been identified for hearth diseases encompasses smoking, lack of exercise and fat-based diets. These issues can actually be handled by offering necessary encouragement to the affected individuals to stop smoking, to engage themselves in more exercise and to adopt more of low fat diets. Such interventions can also be focused either on the entire community or on specific individuals that are at high risks. Basically, how effective risk-focused prevention can be is evaluated by gold standards based on random controlled trials, and the emphasis on medicine as a cost-benefit analysis for intervention has been on the rise. Therefore, it is not a surprise that such emphasis has been on the rise in criminology, focused primarily on high quality evaluation and cost-benefit analysis (Welsh et al., 2001; Sherman et al., 2006).

In the case of youth offending, the emanating risk factors does seem to be somewhat similar with numerous outcomes, which can include violent and non-violent offending, issues with drug and alcohol, unemployment and failure of the educational systems. Thus, a preventive program that will be successful with reducing this risk factors will be one that has wide-ranging profits for plummeting other forms of social issues as well. As a result of increasing interests to link risk issues with preventive programmes, risks factors that cannot be viably altered in such prorgamems (such as race and gender) are normally excluded from consideration, with exception of cases where they function as moderators.

The main issue when it comes to risk-focused prevention is to determine risk factors that are causing the problems and those that are only correlational with the problem (Farrington, 2000). It is also necessary to determine the intermediaries (intervening fundamental processes) between the identified risks factors and outcome (Baron and Kenny, 1986). The ideal case should be targeting the intervention on the risk factors that are actually the causes; as intervention that are targeted on risk factors that are just makers of the causes might not necessarily bring about a decline in offending. The difficulty associated with establishing causes, and concurrence of risk factors does bring about an approach based on blunderbuss; forcing the intervention process to actually target numerous risks factors. In any case, evidence does suggest that combined or multi-modal intervention approaches are actually more real than interferences based only on one risk factor (Wasserman and Miller, 1998).

Understanding the differences between individual risk factors

As highlighted earlier, the behavior of children are normally due to social, genetic and environmental factors. In the case of child delinquency, individual risk factors have been defined as the social, genetic, physical, emotional and cognitive features of an individual. These factors are found to be interrelated, but the main mechanism on how these risk factors operate are not clearly understood. They are as discussed below:

Early antisocial behavior – this can actually be the best predictor of late delinquency among youths. In general, antisocial behavior does include different form of aggression and violation of oppositional rule (for instance physical fighting, theft and vandalism). It has bene confirmed by studies that early antisocial behavior does seem to be the best predictor of early-onset delinquency for male offenders (Fergusson and Horwood, 1995; Maguin and Loeber, 1996). That is to say, if people are antisocial at a young age without being put through cautionary process, they will likely remain the same way and even effect other dangerous activities in the future.

Emotional factors – while it has been understood in this case that early aggressive behavior is the most clear and best predictor of delinquency later in the lives of youths, there are also issues that result to antisocial behavior later in the life of a youth. As they progress, children actually experience varied forms of human emotions (such as shame, anger, pride and guilt) (Fergusson and Horwood, 1995). The parents and teachers of these children can also bring about an effect on the socialization of emotional expression from these children and help them to understand how to manage emotions that are negatively constructed. As such, it can be seen that the way children express emotions, with special reference to anger, in the early days of their life can actually bring about desired reduction on risks associated with delinquency.

Poor cognitive development – it does appear that cognitive and emotional development are associated with the ability of a child to control social behavior in his or her early life. It has also been suggested that this factors does play vital roles when it comes to development of early delinquency and can actually have effect on the learning of social rules. Poor cognitive development and issues with behavior does offer needed explanation on the link between academic achievement and delinquency. As an example, it has been shown in numerous studies that verbal IQs does seem to be lower than nonverbal IQs of the child delinquents (e.g., Moffitt, 1993). Additionally, evidence does suggest that delinquents also have a lower mean global IQs and lower achievement rates in school when compared with their non-delinquent counterparts (e.g., Fergusson and Horwood, 1995; Maguin and Loeber, 1996).

Conclusion

The case of youth offending is a serious issue that is permeating every parts of the world and if not handles well, could lead to further problems. Thus, this was made the subject of this research are findings does indicate that youth offending is no longer a part of the developed world alone as it is now being featured significantly across developing world. The main causes where identified as socioeconomic, cultural factors, victimization and moral panic. In order to remedy this used, risk-focused prevention is recommending as it will identify the relevant risk and effect corrective measures that will be used to solve such risks. The main reasons for youth offending where found to be individual and they include poor cognitive reasoning, emotions, and early antisocial behavior. In conclusion, it is recommended that necessary corrective measures should be enacted to reduce the issue of youth offending.

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