Risk Factors: Peers, Family, Gangs, Marginal and Homeless Youth

Question 1

According to the Bell text, where research has found a relationship between family structure and youth crime and delinquency, this may be due to factors other than family structure. Which of the following factors might also account for delinquent behaviour of youth?

a. the growth of one-parent households

b. parenting skills and parenting styles

c. parent battles over child custody

d. the “deadbeat dad” syndrome

Answer 1

b. parenting skills and parenting styles

Question 2

According to Baumrind (1991), which of the following is most typical of authoritarian parents?

a. they value obedience and conformity

b. they tend to put their needs above those of their children

c. they discuss and explain disciplinary matters with their children

d. they set standards and have expectations that are consistent with their child’s age

Answer 2

a. they value obedience and conformity

Question 3

According to the text, what is the relationship between parents with criminal records and their children’s criminality?

a. police and courts may be more likely to criminalize children whose parents have criminal records

b. girls with criminal mothers are more likely to be involved in crime and deliquency than boys with criminal fathers

c. studies have shown that boys with criminal fathers are no more likely than boys with non-criminal fathers to be involved in delinquent behaviour

d. parents with criminal records encourage criminality in their children by not being as censorious toward children’s criminality as other parents

Answer 3

a. police and courts may be more likely to criminalize children whose parents have criminal records

Question 4

What did Cernkovich and Giordano’s (1987) research suggest was considerably more important than family structure in affecting delinquency?

a. school experiences

b. structural family factors

c. parents’ criminal records

d. internal family dynamics

Answer 4

d. internal family dynamics

Question 5

Which of the following is more common among male sex offenders than among non-sexual offenders?

a. parental neglect

b. coming from a broken home

c. exposure to family violence

d. parental problems with alcohol and drugs

Answer 5

c. exposure to family violence

Question 6

Which of the following statements best explains the meaning of the phrase “faulty parenting paradigm”?

a. “bad” parenting leads to “bad” children

b. dysfunctional families lead to “bad” children

c. children should be held accountable for their misdeeds

d. both children and parents should be held accountable for the misdeeds of young children

Answer 6

d. both children and parents should be held accountable for the misdeeds of young children

Question 7

The Bell text refers to public discourse on responsibility for child and youth victimization as a “blame game.” What does this “blame game” ignore?

a. the danger posed by strangers

b. the influence of peers on youth behaviour

c. parental violence toward their children

d. the impact of television and video games on youth behaviour

Answer 7

c. parental violence toward their children

Question 8

With regard to gender differences in school commitment and delinquency, what did data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth indicate?

a. school commitment among girls is less predictive of their delinquency than that of boys.

b. girls’ commitment to school reduces their involvement in property crime more than it does for boys.

c. girls’ commitment to school reduces their involvement in violent crime more than it does for boys.

d. girls are less committed to school than boys but are involved in less crime because of their preoccupation with making friends.

Answer 8

b. Girls’ commitment to school reduces their involvement in property crime more than it does for boys

Question 9

What does Hirschi (1969) argue about the relationship between IQ and delinquency?

a. IQ has a direct effect on delinquency.

b. IQ is indirectly related to delinquency through its effect on grades.

c. IQ is a better predictor of delinquency than are grades.

d. IQ is predictive of school failure, which can increase delinquency.

Answer 9

b. IQ is indirectly related to delinquency through its effect on grades

Question 10

According to Tanner, what does the research data on tracking and delinquency suggest?

a. Students should have choices about their tracking allocations.

b. Tracking is related to delinquency only when allocations are inappropriate.

c. A sense of fairness about appropriate tracking allocations reduces delinquency.

d. Because of the negative effects of tracking, the practice should be abolished in all high schools.

Answer 10

c. A sense of fairness about appropriate tracking allocations reduces delinquency

Question 11

Albert Cohen found that status frustration generated by the school system is a source of delinquency. The findings of Stinchcombe (1964) put an interesting twist on Cohen’s idea of status frustration. What conclusion did Stinchcombe reach?

a. Working-class students are most likely to be frustrated by an inability to do well in school.

b. Middle-class students are most likely to be frustrated by an inability to do well in school.

c. Working- and middle-class students are equally likely to be frustrated by an inability to do well in school.

d. Working-class students are more likely to strike out against the school when they are frustrated by an inability to do well in school.

Answer 11

b. Middle-class students are most likely to be frustrated by an inability to do well in school.

Question 12

Surveys have supported which of the following conclusions regarding relational aggression among Canadian school children?

a. Girls engage in all forms of relational aggression more than boys.

b. Boys are less likely than girls to engage in spreading rumours to “get even.”

c. Girls are more likely than boys to use blackmail and threats against their classmates.

d. In general, there is little difference between boys and girls in their use of relational aggression.

Answer 12

d. In general, there is little difference between boys and girls in their use of relational aggression

Question 13

Which of the following exemplifies Morash’s (1986) argument that boys are more likely to have delinquent friends than girls?

a. the differentially affected hypothesis

b. the differentially exposed hypothesis

c. the delinquent subculture

d. the differential association

Answer 13

b. the differentially exposed hypothesis

Question 14

What does the most recent research reveal about gangs?

a. Gang violence often targets outsiders.

b. Most gang members are involved in minor crimes.

c. Gangs are more likely to involve immigrant youth.

d. Most gang members come from poor and disadvantaged backgrounds.

Answer 14

d. most gang members come from poor and disadvantages backgrounds

Question 15

What conclusion did Joe and Chesney-Lind’s (1993) feminist research on youth gangs in Honolulu reach?

a. Girl gangs provide a social outlet.

b. Girl gang life is an expression of liberation.

c. Girl gangs rarely function independent of male gangs.

d. Girl gang members are usually appendages to boy members.

Answer 15

a. girl gangs provide a social outlet

Question 16

What does microscopic perspective mean?

Answer 16

In Sociology and criminology, refers to theoretical approaches that focus on individuals and behaviour in small social settings rather than in the context of larger social structures.

Question 17

What does family structure mean?

Answer 17

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

Question 18

What is broken homes hypothesis?

Answer 18

The commonly held proposition is that children from divorced and single-parent families are more likely to be delinquent.

Question 19

What is meta-analysis?

Answer 19

A type of analysis in which the unit of analysis is the research results from other research reports.

Question 20

Meaning of the word criminalize?

Answer 20

A term that differentiates between referring to a person as a “criminal” and the process whereby individuals come to be viewed as “criminal.”

Question 21

Risk: Recidivism (when they come out of the system and back into society) and Intervention:

Answer 21

• Dynamic risk factors: amenable to treatment
  o Substance use; school achievement; pro-criminal attitudes, anti-social peers
• Static risk factors: cannot be changed (by treatment)
  o Parental abuse/neglect; onset of problem behaviour; early age of first conviction

Question 22

Youth in school:

Answer 22

o Academic (not doing well academically), social (having bad social groups), bullied
(if they come from a poor financial background), peers (associating with
delinquent peers). The greater the number of problems they have at school, they
have more delinquent. First it’s academically then bullied by their peers that have
the greatest effect.

Question 23

Youth with family:

Answer 23

Structural, discipline (if they are involved with their kids), supervision, state
(foster care)

Question 24

Youth with peers:

Answer 24

(usually at) school; elsewhere (cousins, siblings, hobbies)

Question 25

Youth with neighbourhood/community:

Answer 25

Community; physical environment, economic & recreational ops, pro-social
support, adult mentors, risky (crime, violence, gangs)

Question 26

Canadian Youth:

Answer 26

• No Risk
  o (~35%) not involved/minimal in crime or delinquent; no attention by CJS
  (home/school- good)
• Low Risk
  o (~25%) some signs of defiance or may have some academic issues or association
  with delinquent peers
• Moderate risk
  o (~20%) may have conflict with law/school; may have violence in home;
  victimized/bullied; neighbourhood
• High Risk
  o (~15%) several risks factor at same time (school, home, neighbourhood & peers(
• Very High Risk
  o (~5%) serious crime & violence; known to police/social services; probs at school;
  may be in foster care or homeless/runaway

Question 27

Highschool failures- who falls through the cracks and why?

Answer 27

• Failures: drop-outs, parenthood, illiteracy
• Public school model: modeled on European white middle-class
  o That’s why IQ tests are problematic because it’s disadvantaged for student that
  don’t come from this background

Question 28

Who is at a disadvantage?

Answer 28

• 1) Marginal students (ethnic, non-English or French speaking)
• 2) Poor (risk for dropping out; need to work- esp. boys)
• 3) Home dysfunction (abuse/neglect, addicts)
• 4) Geography: large metropolitan areas [why might this be?] tends to have higher rates
  of poverty compared to small towns, more opportunity for crime

Question 29

Getting rid of troublemakers (Bowditch, 1993):

Answer 29

• Methods: DuBois HS (inner-city US; high population of Black youth)
  o Demographics: neighbourhood with ½ adults not graduate from HS; ½ LIVE IN
  POVERTY; 60% only one parent
• Research period: one school year
• Suspension rates: over 25% has been suspended at least once
• Discipline Office:
• A) Most routine problems: lateness, cutting class or disrupting class
• B) Less routine problems: fighting, drug possession, theft, vandalism or threats to
  teacher
• C) Rare: sale of drugs, violence against teacher, weapons

Question 30

Getting rid of troublemakers (Bowditch, 1993) in percentages:

Answer 30

• Penalties: call parents (suspended/expel) or hold out of class
• Suspensions (boys)
• 1) Disruption of school (4%)
• 2) Damage or theft of school property (1%)
• 3) Damage or theft of private property (0.8%)
• 4) Assault on school employee (0.4%)
• 5) Assault on a student or other person not employed (8.6%)
• 6) Possession of weapons (0.8%)
• 7) Possession of narcotic/alcohol (2.4%)
• 8) Repeated school violations *[no reason] (63%)
• 9) Disruptions & offensive use of language * (46%)
• 81% suspensions to punish against school authority rather than safety
• Social Construct of Troublemaker:
• A) Asking students about incident
• B) Assessment Tools: grades, attendance, previous discipline, age, plans for employment
• C) Ask details (only if student has good grades)
• D) Punishment: type of student vs type of behaviours

Question 31

Education:

Answer 31

• Canada’s HS graduation rate: 84% (2019/20) [from 81%]
  o Provincial (94% Newfoundland to 79% Quebec) [don’t have territories]
  o Vs USA (86%)
• Highest drop-out (17-year-olds) (Indigenous vs non-Indigenous. 25% vs 10%)
• Gender: girls (87%) bs boys (81%) this is because we need more education to get higher
  wages whereas occupation that are male dominated have higher wages and less
  education

Question 32

Dropping out and education

Answer 32

• Tertiary education
• Canada (“some”, most educated; 56.3%)
• Completed (Canada; 2nd) we’re the second most educated in the world, under 40
  we are second in the world
• University (33% has Bachelors or higher in 2021)
• Uni graduation rate (within 5 years)
• USA (~ 45%)
• Canada (~53%)
• Girls are more likely to graduate

Question 33

The role of peers:

Answer 33

• Friends/peers (“greatest predictor of youth delinquency”) [boys] EXAM
• Differentially exposed: boys vs girls (boys more likely have delinquent friends)
• Differentially affected: boys vs girls (girls less negatively impacted but delinquent peers;
  except older bf)

Question 34

Parenting (Baumrind, 1978; 1991):

Answer 34

(1) Parental responsiveness: extent parents(s) is supportive of child’s needs (warmth &
supportiveness)- more support= less delinquency. Fosters self identity in the child, self
regulation, self control which Gottfredson and Hirschi say
(2) Parental demandingness: extend parent(s) are demanding of appropriate behaviour (use
of discipline)- less demanding or too demanding= delinquency

Question 35

Types of Family (Baumrind):

Answer 35

• Authoritative: supporting (supportive discipline methods) & demanding IDEAL they
  monitor and put appropriate demands for the child. They tend to have the least of
  delinquent children
• Authoritarian: rejecting & extremely demanding (more aggression; CA research:
  violent/aggressive)
• Indulgent: supportive & not demanding [“permissive’ & friends] (behavioural issues)
• Indifferent: rejecting & not demanding [neglect if extreme] (delinquency; CA can show
  aggression when rejected)

Question 36

Consequences of Poor Family Relationships

Answer 36

• Aggression & emotional disorders
• Crime (more property)
• Substance abuse
• Running away
• Violence [cycle; violent] they internalize the violence they see from their parents so it’s a
  cycle
• Generational issues [may carry into adulthood & into next generation]

Question 37

Work: Unemployment and Youth:

Answer 37

• Youth and Unemployment [up to age 24]- have highest rate (race/ethnicity)- reasons?
• [less training & skills; less experience; employers want more stable/committed]
• Position [work]: marginal
• Education- plays important role in unemployment

Question 38

Youth and Working Wages

Answer 38

• Common work:
• Service industry
• Construction and landscaping (seasonal)
• Boys vs girls (over school year; boys work more house & over more time)
• Wages (min wage) (ON: $15.60/HOUR- Oct, 2023 vs $16.55)
• Effects of work
• Positive- responsible, manage money; time management; confidence; better grades
• Negative (15 hours threshold*) FINAL EXAM! WHEN DOES IT START GETTING NEGATIVE?

Question 39

Gangs and Homeless Youth:

Answer 39

Gangs: Definitions
Definition issues: Gangs and organized crime (membership)
Aggravating factor: court (fact or circumstance that increases severity or culpability of criminal
act; ex, increases sentence)

Question 40

Criminal organization: Legal definition Section 467.1(1): (2002)

Answer 40

“Criminal organization”: )means a groups, however organized)
* 3 or more persons (in/out of Canada)
* Main purpose-facilitation of serious offence(s) (indictable)
* For material benefit (direct or indirect)** [street gangs & violence may not qualify]
* HAS TO USE THIS DEFINITION TO PROVE IT IN COURT

Question 41

(Academic) Classifying Gangs by Levels (Wortley and Ellis, 2019) Level 1 Gangs:

Answer 41

• fluid friendship groups
• criminal activity periodic, unplanned
• no leadership
• no name, signs or symbols
• may form & disband quickly

Question 42

(Academic) Classifying Gangs by Levels (Wortley and Ellis, 2019) Level 2 Gangs:

Answer 42

• Period of time (1 year or longer)
• Criminal activity is planned & deliberate
• Not tied to specific neighbourhood
• May or may not have gang name, signs or symbols
• No formal leadership structure
• Violence & disputes over reputation/honour [the Code]

Question 43

(Academic) Classifying Gangs by Level (Wortley and Ellis, 2019) Level 3 Gangs:

Answer 43

• Hierarchal structure with leaders & followers
• Criminal activity planned
• Control activities in territory
• Gang name, signs & symbols
• Violence (use of firearms)
• Conflict subculture
• Ex. Bloods & Crips (well known street gangs)

Question 44

(Academic) Classifying by levels (Wortley and Ellis, 2019) Level 4 Gangs

Answer 44

• Sophisticated hierarchal structure
• Criminal activity planned
• Legal and illegal acts
• International business
• Violence of strategic purposes
• Criminal subculture
• Ex. Mafia, Drug Cartels, Hells Angels

Question 45

Gang Involvement (Toronto) (Wortley and Tanner, 2007)

Answer 45

• Surveys and Interviews with street youth and high school students (gang membership)
  o Sample size: High school 3, 393; Street Youth 396

Question 46

Percent Reporting Belong to a Gang

Answer 46

• For former gang members and street youth it’s 10.4%
• For Current Gang members and Street youth it’s 16.4%

Question 46

Toronto Street Gang pilot Project:

Answer 46

• Qualitative interviews (n= 209 gang members)
• 83% males; 63% single-parents family; 14% grew up in child-protection system;
  76% Canadian-born

Question 46

Social correlations of Gang Activity within immigration status and race (Wortley and Tanner, 2007):

Answer 46

• Immigration status
• Canadian-born vs immigrant (Canadian-born more likely)
• Race/ethnicity
• Self-identify: White (36%), Black (26%), Aboriginal (11%) and South Asian (10%),
  Asian (10%), Hispanic (7%)
  -Aboriginal, Black & Hispanic students are also more likely to be in a Housing
  Project

Question 47

Other social correlations of Gang Activity (Wortley and Tanner, 2007)

Answer 47

• Gender:
• HS students: males vs females (16% M vs 6%F)
• Vs street youth (GENDER LESS PRMOUNCED: 29%M vs 22%F)
• Age
• Previous research-teens/Young Adults
• Average age (HS average is 16; <USA 17.5)
• Younger vs older (6% <16; 5% 16yo)
• Street youth- more persistent (average 18.4 years)
• Social class: poor neighbourhoods (18% vs 3%) [self described “poor” vs “above
  average”]
• Housing projects/Public Housing
• *Strong predictor of gang activity (14% vs 4%/3%)
• Explained: poverty and geography (social disorganization)- connects to strain theory
• Reasons: stigmatized, isolated, excluded & belief denied legitimate opportunities
• Family structure
• Single parent household (8% vs 3%)
• Social class & supervision (single parent) [poor with both parents- lower, supervision)
• Education (school performance)
• Grades: lower (gang members) got worse when they joined gangs
• Goals for PSE or career- less likely
• Performance declines- once part of gang
• Social Alienation
• Discrimination (housing, employment, educ, CJS)
• Perceptions of social injustice- experience with discrimination
• Policy without improving social position- will be unsuccessful
• Programs and gang suppression efforts without help are doomed to failure

Question 48

Why do youth join gangs?

Answer 48

• Neighbourhood and Peers begins with informal friendships/peers
• Family influences: unstable, disruptive family
• Protection: live in conflict/violence
• Social support & Companionship problems at home & school (‘gang as family”)
• Social Status & respect (denied elsewhere) power (Cohen’s status frustration)

Question 49

Homeless “street” youth:

Answer 49

• Importance:
  o 1) disproportionate charges and incarceration
  o 2) disproportionate victimization
• Defined: under age 25, with inadequate shelter or lack of permanent address
• Criminology theories: strain theory, general strain theory, differential association
  (learning how to survive on the street), labelling, deprivation thesis, social control theory
  (not having any attachments)

Question 50

How do youth join gangs?

Answer 50

• Problems: with family (abuse/conflict), school, peers, parenthood, LGBTQ+, mental
  health issues
• Psychological harm: depression, low self-esteem, suicide, self-injurious behaviours (have
  these behaviours before they move out and stays with them for most of the time)

Question 51

Characteristics of youth who are likely to join gangs:

Answer 51

• Not all: chronically homeless
• Early adolescents (<16):
• Maladaptive & poor behavioural decisions (delinquency, drugs, sex)
• Influenced by gangs/drugs dealers
• Reluctant to use services or denied
• More likely to attend school

Question 52

General background of homeless youth:

Answer 52

• Gender: disproportionately male (except younger)
• Household (prior to street): both biological parents (less than 30%); foster parents
  (~25%)
• Education: problems at school (including rejection from peers, especially 2SLGBTQ+)
• Family conflict: reasons to leave (most common)
• Dysfunctional: neglect, rejection, coercive, abuse
• Abuse: psychological, physical &/ or sexual

Question 53

Physical Abuse:

Answer 53

• Gender: males vs females (males more likely; ~1/3 experience aggravated assault)
  (ended up in the hospital as a result of the assault and in some cases be life threatening)
• Parental substance abuse (common) parents who are alcoholics and drug addicts
• Parental criminality (engage in crime)
• Parents neglect & abuse (rarely in isolation from other problems) (connected to
  unemployment, substance abuse, criminality)
• Adult violence (domestic violence common; naturalization of violence as conflictresolution) (those kids take it on the streets and engage in it. Domestic violence is really
  common between romantic partners, not just in their homes but also on the streets)

Question 54

Sexual Abuse:

Answer 54

• Gender: males vs females (females more likely; more likely by a family member) (tends
  to start earlier for girls.)
• Predictor: running away (& prostitution)
• General population (comparison) (5-7x greater)
• Effects
• Females- mood (depression, suicide, anxiety disorder); associated with
  prostitution
• Males externalized symptoms (substance abuse, conduct disorders)

Question 55

Family Violence (Whitbeck, Hoyt and Ackley, 1997) (one of the first interviews to get research from both children and parents)

Answer 55

• Research done with families (youth & parents (s))
• Policy: Mandatory returns
• Methods: Interviewed 120 homeless youth and parents (in 4 states)
• Demographics: race (78% European-American) (12% were Black) (5% were Asian) (5%
  were white)
• Abuse: high (youth prostitutes- around 60% sexually abused) (house was very
  dysfunctional because of abuse)

Question 56

Research with Family- Results (Whitbeck et al., 1997)

Answer 56

• Measured: Parental monitoring, rejection, warmth & supportiveness
• Abuse: physical, sexual, aggression
• Parents & adolescent reports of abuse: did not differ! (the only difference was severity,
  the parents downplayed the severity than the youth)
• Parents
• Violence
  ▪ Hit with object: 35% male, 30% females (National: 7%)
  ▪ beaten 16% males, 10% females (National: 2%)
• Sexual assaults: 18% parents reported (girls; but parents might not know)
• Policy implication:
• Mandatory returns: ignores dangerous environment (child and parent (s))
• Youth not wanted back
• Criminalize victim of abuse and exploitation

Question 57

Experience of Homelessness

Answer 57

• Shelter: daily activity
• rent or shelters
• Peers: important for survival (safety)
• Motivator: hunger is motivator for criminal activity. The more hungry they get, the more
  crimes they commit.
• Boredom: pass time “hanging out”

Question 58

Subsistence and Work (O’Grady and Gaetz, 2004)

Answer 58

• Highly flexible economy (the way they obtain money)
• Social patterns to making money (background and situational) (the decisions they make
  is based on the factors in their lives)
• Patterns of substance
• Gender (G: social assistance, sec trade; B: robbery, theft, drugs)
• Age (older: sell drugs)
• Class (WC (WORKING CLASS): crime)

Question 59

Drug Dealing:

Answer 59

• Recruiting juveniles
  A) cheap labour
  B) lower penalties
  C) risks [willing to take] (especially if they are poor and are on the streets. Much
  more pronounced in street youth than highscholl youth)
• Use of weapons and violence
• American vs Canadian
• (CA) 1 in 13 homicides gang-related, 1/3 drug-related (youth more likely gang
  homicide than adult- saw in Week 3)

Question 60

Violence and Homelessness:

Answer 60

• Domestic violence (high prevalence)
• Stressors: poverty, violent peers. Modelling and rewards for violence
• Peers can affect violence (survival techniques) (some of them will build reputation based
  on violence to prevent being victimized)