Ch. 6 - Troubled and Troubling Youth Flashcards
What are two conceptualizations of defining youth?
Age and status.
What does it mean for youth to be troubling?
Primarily a threat to others and to society.
What does it mean for youth to be troubled?
Primarily a threat to themselves.
How is youth crime often viewed?
As being out of control.
What distinction is drawn in youth crime?
Between perceptions of youth crime and patterns of youth crime.
What effect does focusing on youth as offenders have?
It obscures the fact that youth are disproportionately victims of crimes.
What is the gap between perceptions and patterns due to?
Moral panics.
What moral crime involving youth crime has been had in recent decades?
The media created the idea that youth crime was on the rise when it wasn’t.
What did the perception of rising youth crime result in?
A demand of politicians to enact new legislation.
What do explanations for youth crime focus on?
Parents and peers.
What is the ideal parenting style?
Moderate levels of control and supervision along with high levels of affection and flexibility.
What does empirical research on youth gangs focus on?
Family indicators, community indicators, personal indicators, and school indicators.
What are 2 family indicators of youth gang involvement?
Parental relations that are far too lax or too strict or families where crime is the norm.
What are 4 community indicators of youth gang involvement?
High crime rates, preexisting gang presence, high transient population, or a lack of cultural and recreational opportunities.
What are 4 personal indicators of youth gang involvement?
Substance use and abuse, lack of motivations/aspirations, poor school performance, and low self-control.
What are 5 school indicators of youth gang involvement?
Inadequate funding, few opportunities, violence in the school environment, poor supervision and control of students, low expectations of students.
What does ethnographic research reveal are motivations of youth gang involvement?
Material incentives, recreation, a place of refuge and camouflage, physical protection, time to resist, and commitment to the community.
What is time to resist?
Rejection of mainstream society.
How are gangs a place of refuge and camouflage?
Being a member comes with a certain degree of anonymity, and lowered responsibility for the crimes they might engage in.
How does the media often portray gangs as?
Racialized.
What does the racialization of gangs by the media serve to do?
Create associations between race and criminality.
What are 5 examples of groups that benefit from moral panics about gangs?
Media, politicians, interest groups, law enforcement, and gangs themselves.
How does the media benefit from moral panics?
Sensationalism sells.
How do politicians benefit from moral panics?
It provides the a platform to get tough on crime.
How does law enforcement benefit from moral panics?
They can hire more officers when there is believed to be a “gang problem.”
How do gangs benefit from moral panics?
Free publicity and increased power in the community.
What are the 4 levels of control?
Formal, informal, retroactive, preventative/prospective.
What are 4 sites of control?
Schools, families, communities, and the criminal justice system.
What are the three youth justice legislations?
The Juvenile Delinquents Act (1908), the Young Offenders Act (1984), and the Youth Criminal Justice Act (2003).
What was the main tenet of the JDA?
Parens patrie, where the state becomes the parent of the child if their real parents are unable to fill that role.
What type of model was the JDA?
A welfare model, custody was a last resort.
What was the YOA characterized by?
A major departure from the JDA’s model; youth justice legislation became more like the adult system, ensuring due process and emphasizing rehabilitation along with protecting society.
What type of approach was taken by the YCJA?
A bifurcated approach, violent offenders were treated more harshly than offenders with no previous record.
What three substances are most used by troubled youth?
Tobacco, drugs, and alcohol.
What transition has smoking recently undergone?
One from being normal to deviant.
What has the trend of smoking been over the last 4 decades?
1970-1990 saw a decrease, 1991-1999 saw an increase, and 2000+ saw a decrease.
Where does the primary motivation to start smoking come from?
Friends or peer pressure.
What has been done to control tobacco?
Advertising restrictions, anti-smoking campaigns, and individual efforts.
What is the most commonly used psychoactive drug used by youth?
Marijuana.
What percentage of drug users friends are also drug users?
80%
What percentage of non-drug users friends are drug users?
7%
What factors make drug use become problematic?
Individual, community, family, and school factors.
What do community factors of drug use include?
Whether it’s normalized and whether they’re available.
What do family factors of drug use include?
Parenting styles and histories of substance use from within the family.
What do school factors of drug use include?
Levels of academic success and opportunities for extracurricular activities.
What must social control efforts be in order to be effective?
Programs must be age-appropriate, occur prior to their exposure to drug use, integrate youth’s own perceptions, and take their lifestyles into consideration.
What is considered binge drinking?
5 drinks in one sitting for males and 4 drinks for females.
Where are the highest rates of binge drinking seen?
In “traditional” university students (fraternity/sorority members, varsity athletes, etc.)
What is the prevention paradox?
There is a concern over binge drinking in groups who drink less.
What are street youth defined as?
Individuals who are 25 years old or younger who are either homeless or under-housed.
Why are street youth a difficult population to study?
It’s difficult to define “street youth,” it’s also a very diverse, transient population.
What makes it difficult to define “street youth”?
The question of how entrenched someone hast o be in street life to be classified.
What are the two pathways to street life?
Runaways and throwaways.
What are runaways?
Youth escaping a destructive home situation or personal crisis.
What are throwaways?
Youth who are abandoned or edged out, may be a matter of divorce, blending of families, or unruly behaviour.
What are 4 risks of street life?
Decreased rights, opportunities, and social supports; victimization and exploitation; health risks; and involvement in criminal behaviour.
What is exchange sex?
Sex for goods or services; not necessarily prostitution, but possibly in exchange for a place to sleep or food.
What strategies are in place to prevent and reduce youth homelessness?
Prevention and awareness, early intervention, client-centred support, research and evaluation, and stakeholder engagement.
What does storm und drang mean?
Storm and stress.
