Lecture 5 Flashcards
Delinquency
Old-fashined way of talking about youth deviance.
Delinquency is a ___, not a ___ definition.
Legal, sociological.
Examples of delinquent acts:
- Truancy (skipping classes).
- Underage smoking.
- Alcohol.
- Early sexual activity.
- Unwillingness to obey authority figures.
Delinquency includes behaviours that would not be criminal if…
Committed by adults.
The law used to see itself as providing moral guidance for youth. This state taking on the role of the parent is known as…
In loco parentis.
Why was there a reform of how delinquency was dealt with in the 1970’s?
- Wanted to get rid of arbitrary and discriminatory uses of authority.
- There were no set rules, so it was easy to abuse power.
How did the academic community change how they looked at delinquency?
Less concerned about correcting risky behaviour, more concerned about studying what leads to this risky behaviour.
What is wrong with the term “At-Risk Youth”?
- Term is vague, as all youth can be subsumed within the at-risk category.
- Also creates a generation gap between younger and older generations.
It was common in the past to conceptualize adolescence as a transition from…
Beast-like to human/civilized.
Do adolescent interests differ greatly from adult interests?
Not really.
Do parents and teenagers like each other?
Yes.
Do most teenagers live normal lives?
Yes.
True or false? The generation gap is a myth.
True.
Why would the generation gap being a myth change?
- Parents are not home as much.
- It would be the result of a world created by adults, not teenagers.
Most adolescents are risk-takers. True or false?
False.
Sociologists interested in deviant youth tend to focus on ___.
Gangs.
Why do youth engage in risky behaviours?
Some risky behaviours are aimed at making money, but mostly this behaviour is done to gain or defend status.
Deviance occurs in all social classes. However, most evidence can be found among…
Low-income neighbourhoods.
Why do teenagers break rules?
Teenagers typically break rules because they have something to gain and nothing to lose. Rational choice. Contrary to popular belief, it is not irrational or passion-driven.
What gender makes up most of gang members?
Males.
What is a caution that must be taken when studying delinquency?
Not creating too strong of a link between delinquency and criminal acts.
True or false?
- Adults commit well over 50% of crimes in every category under the criminal code.
- Also commit more than 80% of the violent crimes.
True.
Youth are more likely to be the ___ of crime than anything else.
Victims.
Why is youth delinquency a moral panic?
Gap between the reality and the story the media drums up.
While we continue to create folk devils of teenagers, we are also…
Concerned of protecting their innocence.
Folk Devil
Perceived as a threat to societal values and interests.
Why is it ironic that parents are so concerned about out-of-control teenagers, bullying, pedophiles, cyber-deviance?
Ironic, because most teenagers are victims at the hands of a known assailant.
How are youth gangs portrayed in media?
New, growing, and out-of-control problem for society.
Youth Gang
Have group name and group identity, and are perceived by others as distinct group. Involved in significant number of delinquent activities. These activities produce negative responses from community or law enforcement.
Why do youth join gangs?
- Gangs emerge in economically disadvantaged areas in lower-class youth.
- Serves as sources of identity and expressions of resistance for youth who were screwed over.
- Rational reasons.
Rational reasons youth join gangs:
Material resources, recreation, refuge and camouflage, physical protection, sense of uniqueness, commitment to a community.
Chav
- Refers to young white working class youth who wear tracksuits, jewelry, and trainers.
- Emerged around 2004 as a moral panic around low-income youth.
Chavettes
Chavettes are known to be promiscuous and slutty.
How does the media portray Chavs?
Vulgar, tacky, cheap, excessive consumption, blingy Christmas lighting, fast food, tattoos, single teenage mothers, welfare dependency, hang out in marginalized spaces.
What two folk devils are incorporated in Chavs and Chavettes?
- Incorporates two familiar folk devils:
- Young, violent, working-class male.
- Working class welfare cheats.
- Single, unwed, young working class mother.
Describe the trend of youth tobacco use:
Declined from 1970-1990, increased, then is decreasing since 2001.
Which gender is more likely to try smoking, and are more likely to become daily smokers?
Girls.
In Canadian society, smoking has made the transition from being perceived as ___ to ___.
Normal, deviant.
How do laws portray smoking as deviant?
- Workplaces ban smoking.
- No smoking bylaws in public places.
- Anti-smoking campaigns in schools.
- Regulating advertisement.
Drug use among Canadian youth ___ in the 1990’s.
Increased.
What is the most widely available psychoactive drug excluding alcohol?
Cannabis.
What proportion of youth have tried cannabis by Grade 12?
Between 39.8 an 62.9%.
What is the caveat in the statistic that about half of youths have tried cannabis by Grade 12?
Most have not used in the past month.
The same indicators that influence youth crime (family, gang involvement) is used for ___ ___.
Substance abuse.
Youth are far more likely to use cannabis than alcohol. True or false?
False.
What percent of Grade 7 students have tried alcohol?
8.4 to 28.1%.
What percent of grade 12 students have tried alcohol?
75.1 and 83%.
Both sociologists and concerned parents believe adolescent drunkenness is a growing problem, and criticize the ___ industry for contributing to the problem through marketing to young people.
Alcohol.
What is an example of the alcohol industry targeting young people?
Coolers and alco-pops.
What area of alcohol use has become more of a concern recently?
Binge drinking among college students.
__% of college students are binge drinkers.
40.
Although the percentage of college students that are binge drinkers has stayed stable since 1993, the proportion of frequent drinkers has ___.
Increased.
The proportion of frequent drinkers has increased since 1993. What other demographic has also increased?
Those that abstain.
How is binge drinking defined?
As having 5 or more drinks on one occasion per male, or 4 or more drinks for a female.
Although some people are concerned about binge drinking in university, research does not support this concern. Why?
There is no correlation between binge drinking in college and alcoholism later in life.
Binge drinking is associated with the university lifestyle, and with each year in college, binge-drinking decreases. True or false?
True.
True or false? Binge drinking increases following graduation.
False, it decreases.
What are some negative consequences of binge drinking among college students?
Miss classes, disrupts peers, also affects larger community (automobile accidents).
Students support university efforts to curb binge drinking, as long as…
Student input is also considered.
Prevention Paradox
A situation where most control efforts are targeted at individual heavy drinkers. However, it is not individual heavy drinkers that cause most of the harm. It is the low-moderate drinkers.
What do researchers propose to get around the prevention paradox?
Researchers think a population prevention approach is necessary.
What are some population prevention approaches to preventing binge drinking?
- Increasing taxes on alcohol.
- Having stricter policies regulating alcohol advertisements on campus.
