family, peers & youth criminal prob

Question 1

4 Causal Factors for Youth Crime

Answer 1

1) Peer Influence
2) the family
3) Youth Gangs
4) Schools

Question 2

Hirschi’s Parental Attachment Theory

Answer 2

Youth delinquency will be lower in families where children have a strong attachment to their parents
- more likely to care about the normative expectations of their parents
– this strains against delinquent impulses

Question 3

Hirschi’s Defined in Two ways

Answer 3

1) As parental supervision.
2) As parental affection

Question 4

Other Control theories

Answer 4

Sutherland’s Control Theory (opposite of Hirschi’s

Question 5

Two significant challenges with empirically validating theories on youth crime:

Answer 5

1) Different theories are contradictory
2) Validation of theories’ finding depends on how one defines key terms:
“attachment” , “gang”
- the definition we give them can effect is a throw is valid (or has a valid explanation)

Question 6

Two main causal factors in youth crime: Family

Answer 6

1) Structure of the family
2) Family relationship

Question 7

Family Structure: Issues?

Answer 7

based on traditional norms of the “nuclear family” - two heterosexual parents living with their biological children
- doesn’t account for families of same sex marriage, single parent households
- Bell rejects this
- Bell says that the Relationship of the Family is more important than structure
- Structure has no empirical validity

Question 8

Broken Home Hypothesis

Answer 8

Single parent households may contribute to more youth crime and juvenile delinquency, than nuclear family households

Question 9

Two reasons for Broken Home Hypothesis

Answer 9

R1) there’s a potential for less support and supervision than in two parent household d
R2) children need parental discipline from a fatherly figure

Question 10

Family Structure flaws: Wells and Rankin

Answer 10

Flaw #1 – many family structure research studies did not compare divorced families with non-divorced families.
Flaw #2 – problematic because they rely on official data sources
– these may be a better reflection of the judicial and police discriminatory attitudes toward single parent and female-headed households.

Question 11

What is Family Structure?

Answer 11

How families are structured in terms of
living arrangements (e.g., a traditional nuclear family or a single-parent family)

Question 12

What did Baumrind find?

Answer 12

the two most important aspects of parenting behaviour and most damaging kind of parenting behaviour:
- extent of which parents are supportive of their children’s needs
- the extent to which parents are demanding appropriate behaviour
- “Indifferent Parents”

Question 13

What are “Indifferent Parents”?

Answer 13

put children at great risk of criminality
- (parents who spend little time with their children, know little about their children’s activities, and tend to put their own needs above those of their children).

Question 14

Criminal Fathers

Answer 14

some studies have found that boys with criminal fathers are 4x more likely to be invoiced in delinquent behaviour

Question 15

Bells’ Response to: Criminal Fathers

Answer 15

may be that like single mothers, courts and police are more likely to criminalize the misdeeds of some children
- b/c their parents have criminal records, as opposed to these children having a greater propensity for crime

Question 16

Parker: Unimportance of Family Structure

Answer 16

lots of parental support and parental monitoring (effective parenting behaviour) leads to lower risk behaviours by children. Parenting behaviour is far more of an important indicator of youth criminality than family structure.

Question 17

Consequences of bad family relationships

Answer 17

• children exposed to physical fighting and violence in the home
• more likely to be more aggressively
• involved in property crime and violent crime
• youth are more likely to be begin their delinquent careers earlier
• boys or cause more trouble
  child more likely to start their delinquent careers earlier

Question 18

Bell: on Attachment in all families

Answer 18

expecting strong attachment in all families is not realistic; sometimes children have a good reason for weak attachments and to runaway from home; even if this exposes the child to greater criminality and criminal behaviours.

Question 19

Tough parenting strategies for problem children

Answer 19

these parenting strategies are ineffective and promote a law and order perspective. - Baumrind says tough love parenting falls into the category of “authoritative parenting” and is generally ineffective.

Question 20

Parent Blaming

Answer 20

blaming and targeting parents for youth criminal behaviours leads to repressive laws and policies against parents and is not a productive solution to youth crime

Question 21

Parent Blaming Legislation

Answer 21

parent can’t show that they were reasonably supervising their children to prevent against dangerous activities, they can be held liable civilly and be ordered to pay damages

Question 22

Bell says Parent Blaming is problematic for 3 reasons:

Answer 22

1) they try to hold two people responsible for the same offence
2) lead to severe parental responses such as a parent throwing a child onto the street for committing the property crime
3) might lead to corporal punishment and physical abuse against children

Question 23

what’s left out of the parent public game discussion

Answer 23

• child and youth victimization often not considered by the media or general public
• notion of children rights
• parents enjoy the rights to control how much their children can take part in family decision making

Question 24

Bell’s Conclusion: Family

Answer 24

within the family and outside the family, we must end the punitive culture toward children.