Juvenile Offenders Flashcards
Describe youth crime
- Young offenders are treated differently from adult offenders
- Children between 10-17yrs can be arrested for a crime and tried in a youth court
- Identity of the child is kept confidential outside the court to protect the individual in adulthood (aims to prevent them remaining a criminal)
- Young offenders are only a small group but are responsible for a lot of crimes (around 35%)
- Only crime that is rare for young people to commit is fraud (this is due to young people committing crimes spontaneously and fraud needs to be planned, they are unlikely to have skills/resources needed, most young people commit public crimes in order to gain an identity by fraud is done in private)
- Young people are rarely imprisoned for just one offence
- Custody is not effective (75% reoffend within 2yrs)
- Farrington (1990) found most young offenders are aged 16-17 (this is due to it being a vulnerable age, begins the transition into adulthood, start experiencing lots of risk factor at this age)
Describe youth courts
- Type of Magistrate’s court
- Less formal (e.g. defendants are addressed by first name)
- Not open to public
- No jury
- Youth court = drug offences, burglary, theft, anti-social behaviour
- Crown court = serious offences
Describe youth offending teams
- Work with young people and help them stay away from crime
- Help young people and their families whilst at court
- Supervise those serving community service
What are the 3 types of custody for young people?
- Young offender institutes
- Secure training centres
- Secure children’s homes
Young offender stats
- 42% of young people reoffend within the first 12 months
- Knife possession amongst adults has decreased by 10% whereas possession amongst youths had increased by 11%
- Black and ethnic minority children are 18% of general population by 45% of prison population
Gender difference in youth crime
- Most young offenders are male (only exception is shoplifting where most offenders are female)
- Boys much more likely to commit violent crimes
- Girls more likely to run away from home due to victimisation which can lead to prostitution in order to support themselves (running away leads to a lack of protective factors, making offending more likely)
- Sexual exploitation is an extremely high riskfacutor for girls to begin offending
- Biology isn’t a suitable explanation for gender differences; more likely social reasons e.g. being treated/raised differently
- Share similar risk factors e.g. economy, community, quality of schooling, health and social services)
- Zahn et al (2010) found early puberty, family conflict and unstable neighbourhoods to be particularly high risk factors for girls
- Barret et al (2013) compared the background of juvenile females with controls and found juveniles were more likely to be diagnosed with a disorder the led to aggression/poor impulse control and 60% had received a diagnosis before involvement with the CJS
What are the risk factors that can lead to offending
- Problematic parenting = inconsistent punishment, parents having issues controlling anger, not punishing criminal/anti-social behaviour appropriately
- Johnson et al (2004) found a correlation between aggressive parenting and young offending
- Deviant parents
- Family disruption
- Lack of love/rejection
- Laxness e.g. poor monitoring of rules, little supervision
- History of anti-social behaviour
- Low cognitive ability e.g. poor impulse control, poor problem-solving skills
- Parental substance abuse
- Violent/socially disorganised neighbourhoods
- Protective factors may prevent offending e.g. good parenting
Describe intergenerational transmission
- Farrington, Barnes and Lambert (1996) found that 53% of individuals with a conviction had a family member with a conviction
- Biology may have a factor; impossible to distinguish bio factors from social with this kind of data
- Likley to be more than just bio factors as it is also the case for married couples (83% of men married to a women with a conviction had on themselves; 35% of women married to a man with a conviction had one themselves)
- 1% of families are responsible for 20% of crime
- Farrington (2010) believes the cycle of deprivation and anti-social behaviour is responsible for criminal behaviour
- Trend of criminality running in families is even stronger in youth offenders
Farrington (2011) suggests several reasons for intergenerational transmission
- There is a genetic mechanism which results in the genetic transmission of a potential for criminality
- Parents teach their children criminality either directly or indirectly
- Parents share the same environmental risk factors as their children e.g. living in a criminogenic community
- Assortative mating may mean may mean criminal get together and have criminal-prone children
- Police and rest of CJS may mean that they act biased towards people with criminals in their family
- Being raised by criminals normalcies the behaviour
- Seeing the rewards that parents get increases likelihood of copying
- Stigma and labelling theory (Lemert, 1951) - if it is public knowledge that an individual is from a criminal family, they may too be stigmatised and end up offending as they are treated as a criminal anyway
- If child is old enough, may believe parent’s imprisonment is unjust
- If parent is imprisoned, taken away from child; visits may be upsetting, frightening
If parent is imprisoned, financial burden on remaining parent which may lead to offending
- Strain theory - financial and other pressures may lead to criminality
- Social learning theory - loss of positive parental model leaves child vulnerable to negative influences
- Bessemer (2012) - Ages 7-13 is a critical period for children to be effected by criminal parents (at this age children are still dependent on parents, old enough to understand what CJS is doing) but there is little research support for this
- Glueck and Glueck (1950) found birth order effects criminality; first borns less likely to be a criminal than later born children as first born generally receive more attention before other children are born (have more supervision, may encourage more self-control, more likely to notice the first signs of delinquency, more time with parents and less with delinquent peers,
Factors that lead to continuing criminality into adulthood
Farrington (1996) believes that conduct disorder and anti-social PD have the same predictors:
- Having a convicted parent
- Leaving school at a young age
- Harsh/erratic parental discipline
- Large family size
- Low family income
- Low IQ
- Poor housing
Biological factors of young offenders
- Mainly uses twin studies but the study of specific genes have recently become available
- Neuropsychological deficits may have a direct effect on anti-social behavioural
- Genetic imaging research has begun to show particularly genetic characteristics are closely related to differences in brain structure an functioning
- The enzyme MAOA is responsible for breaking down neurotransmitters; MAOA is found on the X chromosome meaning females have 2 lots and mean only have 1 so are more likely to develop MAOA-related issues
- ## Caspi et al (2002) examined differences between environmental and gene characteristics; believed childhood maltreatment interacted with MAOA to predict criminal/violent behaviour and found these children had high anti-social symptoms, were more likely to be convicted of a violent offence and have conduct disorder; believed it was associated with low levels of self-control
Describe the cycle of abuse
- Curtis (1963) believed that violent social environments creates violence in children and adults
- Early experiences have an effect on later behaviour e.g. children who have parents who engage IPV often become involved in IPV relationships in the future, children who are abused often become abusers
- Research relies on memories from children which is often inaccurate
- Definitions of abuse change depending the study meaning we are unable to tell what kind and severity of abuse leads to the cycle
- Child abuse is associated with a wide range of other characteristics that are harmful to children which makes it difficult to tell whether the violence experienced is directly linked to violent behaviour
Describe the correlation of bullying and delinquency
- Bullies are at risk of long-term anti-social problems
- Bullying in childhood can lead to violent criminality in adulthood as these individuals are often predisposed to high levels of aggression and violence
- Anti-social behaviours in childhood and adulthood are the result of common risk factors influencing anti-social behaviour
- Childhood bullies are often exposed to the same risk factors in adulthood so are likely to continue the violent and threatening behaviour
What are the developmental theories of delinquency
- Moffit’s developmental theory
- Callous-unemotional trait theory
- Psychosocial maturity
Describe Moffit’s developmental theory
LCP:
- Criminal activity begins young
- Criminal activity continues throughout adulthood
- Often show neurological problems, ADHD, conduct disorder
- Below average academic skills
- Below average interpersonal/social skills
AL:
- Criminal activity begins in adolescence
- Criminal activity doesn’t continue into adulthood
- Normal developmental background and no signs of neurological issues
- Average/above average academic skills
- Average/above average interpersonal/academic skills
Describe callous-unemotional trait theory
- Frick et al (2014) conducted a series of studies to determine whether they could test childhood pre-cursors to psychopathy
- Identified a group of children diagnose with conduct disorder who displayed severe and chronic patterns of anti-social behaviour
- Found a lack of empathetic concern for others, limited capacity for guilt, poverty of emotional expression
- Likely due to offend due to a lack of emotions e.g. lack of guilt, not afraid of punishment
- Children with CU traits often dominate others with their aggression
- Children with CU traits are likely to be diagnosed as psychopaths later in life
- CBT has been found to be an effective treatment
