Youth Crime (FINAL) Flashcards
Measuring issues around youth is complicated
What is the age range for youth?
based on when brain is fully developed, financially independent, age of majority 18+, etc?
Youth behaviours are on a continuum from risky to deviant to criminal behaviour
Defining these categories or moving from one to another is complicated
Vast majority of youth engage in behaviour that is considered risky.
The perception of youth crime outweighs the actual prevalence of youth crime due to
moral panics
What are status offences?
Behaviours that are criminal only due to age (underage drinking, driving, etc.)
Youth are always seen as a problem and need
tools/help to become an adult, are also considered deficient in many categories
Transition from childhood to adulthood
This transition is arbitrarily determined in our society with no “rite of passage”
Social structures do not always adhere to the widening responsibilities placed on youth as they transition
Young people are framed as both
at risk and as a risk
Development of Modern Youth Justice: Philippe Aries
How children were viewed and treated by adults in earlier times and how this has changed over time
- Concept of childhood was discovered in 17th century in Western Europe
- High mortality rate = lack of emotional investment by parents
- Less status ambiguity and intergenerational conflict prior to concept of childhood
- Claimed children were happier prior to 17th century
Development of Modern Youth Justice: Beatrice Gottlieb
There has always been ambiguity around childhood and adolescence
The Child Savers Movement
Goal of movement: socialize kids
- Around the industrial revolution era
- Prior to this movement, children were convicted and sentenced the same as adults
Wanted to see and recognize children as just that and having their own rights, rather than only seeing them as future adults
- Raises questions around the links between social control and delinquency
- Represented middle class women who were seen as best suited to socialize children
- Delinquency was linked to improper socialization
- Children were no longer needed for labour at this time
- Children were stated to be seen as innocent and to be protected rather than being used
The Social Construction of Adolescence
Social and cultural transitional period, ages 15-24
Fasick’s 5 demographic transitions that led to current social construction of adolescence:
- Population increase/urbanization
- Emergence of the small family system (parents can invest more into their children when they have less)
- Development of mandatory education laws (children no longer seen as a means for money, more is being invested into them. Also ensured that children were prohibited from entering the workforce bc schooling is mandatory, usually until 16)
- Cultural practices based around “parental dependence” (parents must house and provide for children until their mandatory education is completed)
- Onset of “youth culture”
Understanding youth and deviance: fundamental concerns with critical youth studies centre around
Why youth are portrayed as a threat to society, which must be fixed or controlled
Mainstream criminological theories focus on youth as a problem
Mainstream critical theories of youth crime that problematize youth:
- Social control theory (Crime is a learnt behaviour through socialization, a person with strong social bonds is less likely to commit a crime. Delinquency and crime result when an individual’s bond to conventional society is weakened or destroyed)
- Social disorganization theory (Crime is most likely to occur in communities with weak social ties and the absence of social control. Youth are in transitional zone = prone to crime/deviance bc not connected/assimilated to “adult world”?)
- Matza’s techniques of neutralization (denying youth are victims or denying harm was done??)
- Strain theory (negative emotions that result in strain = anomie, or structural inequalities in access to legitimate opportunities. Crime and deviance is a result of a person’s failure to achieve socially valued goals by legitimate means.)
Early Child-Welfare Model of Youth Justice
An Act for the more Speedy Trial and Punishment of Juvenile Offenders (1857):
- introduced the ideas of proportionality
- person under 16 who had committed an offence
- sentencing was imprisonment or confinement house - no longer than 3months and with no hard labour
Parens partiae:
idea that the state has a duty to assume the role of a parent in the case of delinquent or dependent children with no parents
What are the 3 different legislative regimes that have evolved for administering juvenile justice in Canada?
- Juvenile Delinquents Act (JDA) of 1908
- The Young Offenders Act (YOA) of 1984
- Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA) 2003
Juvenile Delinquents Act (JDA) of 1908
- Canada’s 1st juvenile delinquency legislation, in force from 1908-1984, which allowed provinces to set their own maximum ages of jurisdiction
- Maximum ages ranged from 7-14 and could be different for males and females
The Young Offenders Act (YOA) of 1984
Increased discussions over the rights and responsibilities of individuals in society
- The right to fair and equitable treatment for young people (with respect to their inexperience in life/lack of knowledge about life -»> diminished responsibility)
- The addition of due process and status offences for young offenders (informing them of their rights in a way youth can comprehend and understand)
- Young people were given the right to retain counsel, remain silent, and consult with parent or lawyer
Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA) ushered Canada into a new era in administration of youth justice
- Introduced in 2003 to replace YOA
- Pushes the idea that youth should be diverted from formal CJS as much as possible and diverted to extra judicial sanctions
- Involves youth justice committees that hear cases of potential young offenders and give them sanctions in the community
- go-to response for youth crime, especially for younger offenders and first offenders
Critical Perspectives on Adolescence: Exploitation and Medicalization
Young people are being portrayed as increasingly adult = trying to gain more of a consumer base for adult products (ie makeup being advertised to younger and younger kids), youth wanting to appear as more adult
YET, older individuals want to appear younger
Youth becomes the front and center of our consumer industry
3 institutions that focus on what it means to be youth “at risk” and contributing to moral panic:
- Economic exploitation
- Medicalization
- Media
Economic Exploitation of Youth
- Pressure to find employment and engage in hyper-consumption
- Identity can only be reinforced through product consumption
Medicalization of Youth
Increasingly behaviours that are considered specific to young people being medicalized and “over-diagnosed and overprescribing” (i.e ADHD meds) and these behaviours are “normal” for children in their development
- Adolescent-specific disorders
- ADHD, oppositional defiance disorder
Media and Youth
- Stereotypes internalized by society
- Mods and Rockers
Demographics of Young Offenders
- Young males tend to offend more often than females
- Younger females (12-14 age range) tend to offend more than older females
- Older males (16-18 age range) tend to offend more often than younger males
Correlation
Establishing a relationship between two variables where they vary together
Intersections
The interaction of variable to result in increased deprivation
- Age
- Poverty
- Race
- Gender
- Family structure
- Community design
- Education system
- Lack of power
- Health
Community Design
The community where young people live affects their quality of life and the opportunities available to them
Isolation from the broader society may result in feelings of alienation
- Heightened natural surveillance = decrease in youth crime
- More opportunities to be involved in the community reduces feelings of social isolation and helps to find belonging, which helps prevent deviant behaviour
School/Education System
Typically, a means to escape negative circumstances (i.e negative family circumstances)
Presence of just one positive adult safeguards against youth crime and deviance, and increases likelihood of child achieving their maximum potential
Certain policies may produce unexpected negative effects
- Zero-tolerance policies: policies related to sanctions for violating conduct rules. May lead to more crimes being reported to the police. Often propel youth to be deviant, criminal, or behavioural concerns rather than safeguarding them
Age
Youth under 12 typically account for very little of youth crimes committed
Youth/adult crime ratio has been consistent since the 1970s
Crime tends to increase with age, peaks in late 20s/early 30s, then decreases
Gender
Types of offences
boys: assault and violent offences
girls: administrative offences
Self reports reveal that
- The gap between boys and girls representation is less than official data suggests
- Boys and girls are involved in the same behaviours but at different frequencies
Poverty/Social class
Poverty is not a direct cause of crime and deviance
Poverty comes with additional complications that may lead to crime (more likely to experience marginalization and exclusion = more alienation which increases chances of committing crime)
There are things that have been shown to have an impact on crime
- Level of poverty (not all poverty is equal -> absolute poverty has higher impact compared to relative poverty)
- Concentration (where poverty is highly concentrated, and presence of negative forces will increase likelihood of crime and deviance)
- Circumstances (must also consider social environment and psychological, physical, etc development of the young person)
Race and Youth Crime
Race and ethnic relations in Canada are also related to power differentials
Statistics on race and youth crime and not uniformly collected by police departments in Canada
Radicalization of youth crime by media
Racism can have an impact on youth’s self-esteem and aspirations
Factors influencing race and crime
- Poor police relationships with radicalized communities
- Lack of representation in the public of positive role models for youth
- Poor relationships with teachers and other public servants
- Impact of racial profiling
Youth and Power
Feelings of alienation may breed criminality: - Negative self concept - Distrust of authority - Sense of powerlessness - Sense of exclusion Barriers may also be in place that prevent progress - Lack of transportation - Limited skills
Social Integration
Social bonds bind a person to society and protect against risk-taking
Adolescents are more vulnerable due to their transition period and lack of power and autonomy -> don’t feel attached to the community during this period = more anomie = increased deviance and crime
Western individualism also decreases social integration for adolescents
Explaining youth deviance: isolation from the mainstream
Becker developed his theory of deviance following his study of weed users in the 1960s
- Suggested that risk-taking can become a way of life due to labelling (master status)
- Exclusion from conventional activities push adolescents into marginal occupations = more likely to engage in criminal behaviour
What is the flaw of Becker’s theory?
Does not explain deviance from non-marginalized groups or how the initial deviance occurs
Deviance Drift
Individuals go in and out of deviance, particularly in their youth. When labelled during this drift, they are more likely to remain in those behaviours and engage in other risk-taking behaviour.
“stuck” in deviance = “career in crime” but doesn’t necessarily start with criminal behaviour, but rather deviant
Explaining youth deviance: rites of passage
Risk-taking as a mark of increasing choice and autonomy (assertion of independence and identity)
Robb suggested that the uptake of smoking by young people could be understood as an attempted seizing of status in advance or an ‘anticipatory rite of passage’
Anticipatory rite of passage
A mark/prelude of transitioning to a new identity
Neoliberal ideas - in opposition to social integration theory
Young people are trained to look at family as the only important institution in society rather than looking at everything as a whole
Variables such as sex, gender, sexuality, and ethnicity
As neoliberalism emphasizes family and educational spheres to develop youth into ideal subjects, any
deviation from this ideal is attributed to individual failure and moral deficit
Family dysfunction
- Intolerance of transgressions
- Family structure (single parent family youth are considered at risk)
- Marginalized youth
Explaining youth deviance: habitus
James Messerschmitt: doing masculinity
- “doing masculinity” puts lower-class boy at a higher risk of deviance
- gain control, power, and prestige from doing high-risk/deviant/criminal behaviour
- Existence of a ‘masculine habitus’ which both exposes and predisposes young men to risk-taking
- Most notable among working-class men
What are the flaws of Messerschmitt’s “doing masculinity” theory?
- Ignores anyone else’s deviance who is not a man
- What is masculinity (changing and some previous definitions of it are problematic i.e toxic masculinity)
- Masculinity definition may be subjective based on socioeconomic status
Explaining youth deviance: responses to social constraints
Lyng developed his theory of ‘edgework’ on the basis of a skydiving study
- ‘edgework’ refers to individuals who engage in risk as a way to escape institutional constraints and social control
Resilience
Positive adaption despite adversity in which youth primarily focus on protective factors that mitigate the risks of adverse conditions and circumstances, allowing for healthy development
- Not a trait or inherent capability, but a coping mechanism anyone can develop in situations using environmental resources
- May be otherwise described as “deviant”
Coping mechanisms: social distancing
The active attempts of street-involved youth to remove themselves from certain social groups of persons, and their development of anti-social coping mechanisms in the form of attitudes, such as a distrust of others due to hurtful experiences
Collective action and social practice: Becker argued that deviance was
located in social processes rather than individual behaviour and it could not be understood solely by investigating individuals
- Suggested that we conceptualize deviance as ‘collective action’ and consider all the parties involved
- A social practice that takes place involving all the aspects of social interaction (i.e social practice of smoking)
Collective Action of Gang Membership
- Share a common purpose and goals
- Claims a territory
- Uses power and authority to achieve goals
- Receives negative responses from the community
- Has its own defined lifestyle and culture
- Leadership structure and defined roles
- Participates in collective violence
Frederick Thrasher (communities and subcultures of delinquency)
Thrasher believed that gangs originate in the playgrounds of youth
- The purpose of gangs is to create better societies for boys whose society is, at present, inadequate
- Gangs grow out of a desire to take part in a society to which they otherwise have little access
William Forte Whyte’s Street Corner Society (communities and subcultures of delinquency)
Whyte believed that gangs have an organic relationship with the community in which it forms, almost natural/normal for socially disorganized communities
- Criminal activity was for maintaining the gang
Cohen’s Delinquent Boys (communities and subcultures of delinquency)
Cohen noted that gang members resist pressures of home, school, and other agencies that attempt to regulate any of their activities - The middle-class measuring rod
Cloward and Ohin: Differential Opportunity (communities and subcultures of delinquency)
Simply being subjected to socially generated strain does not enable a person to deviate in any way he or she chooses
- People can participate in a given adaption only if they have access to the means to do so
- Criminal gangs, conflict subcultures (violent gangs), retreatist gangs
Routine activity theory:
Crime is a result of the convergence of:
- Motivated offenders
- Suitable targets
- Absence of a capable guardian
Sampson and Laub
- Children’s role and status change as they grow older
- Age-graded theory of informal social control
- Social capital and social bonds
- Social capital: resources that an individual develops through their networks of institutionalized relationships i.e family, school, etc.
Social implications and intersections: youth on the margins
Child welfare intervention and foster home placements operate as a form of social control that emphasize the same forms of conduct regulation as the educational system
- Youth discharged between 16-18, the responsibility of finding employment and housing is placed on the youth
Social Policy Implications
The debate about the most effective treatment of young offenders continues.
Recent research raises questions about the concept of youth resistance and the definition of delinquency/deviance
