A Dissertation submitted to the Faculty·of Arts in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Magister Artium (n the Department of Criminal Justice University of Zululand, 1997. / This study is based on the problem of juvenile crime in Emondlo. Statistics show that between September 1991 to end of August 1992, three hundred and seven (307) male juvenile offenders were arrested at Emondlo Township. This is against only 18 female offenders who were arrested during the same period. The investigation aims primarily at describing and explaning attitudes of residents to the aetiology of juvenile delinquency. It explores the attitudes of respondents towards the family, school, leisure time and peer group influence on delinquency. This study engendered the following findings: • gender does not influence the attitudes of respondents towards family on delinquency. • gender has a significant difference towards attitudes of respondents in school influence on delinquency. • gender has no significant difference towards attitudes of respondents in leisure time influence on delinquency. • gender has no significant difference towards attitudes of respondents in peer group influence on delinquency. • marital status has no significant difference towards attitudes of respondents in family influence on delinquency. • marital status has significant difference towards the attitudes of respondents in school influence on delinquency. • marital status has no significant difference towards attitudes of respondents in leisure time influence on delinquency. marital status has no significant difference towards attitudes of respondents in peer group influence on delinquency. language groups have significant differences towards the attitudes of respondents in family influence on delinquency. language groups have significant differences towards the attitudes of respondents in school influence on delinquency. language groups have no significant differences towards the attitudes of respondents in leisure time influence on delinquency. language groups have no significant difference towards the attitudes of respondents in peer group influence on delinquency. occupational categories have significant differences towards attitudes of respondents in family influence on delinquency. occupational categories have significant differences towards attitudes of respondents in school influence on delinquency. occupational categories have significant differences towards attitudes of respondents in leisure time influence on delinquency. occupational categories have significant differences towards attitudes of respondents in peer group influence on delinquency. age group is related to the attitude of respondents towards family influence on delinquency. age group is significantly related to the attitude of respondents towards school influence on delinquency. • age group is not significantly related to leisure time influence on delinquency. • age group is significantly related to peer group influence on delinquency. • educational qualifications towards the attitudes of respondents are not significantly related to family influence on delinquency. • educational qualifications towards the attitudes of respondents are significantly related to school influence on delinquency. • educational qualifications towards the attitudes of respondents are not significantly related to leisure time influence on delinquency. • educational qualifications towards attitudes of respondents are significantly related to peer group influence on delinquency. Recommendations are based on the role of the family, school, leisure time and peer group influence in crime prevention.

To explain delinquency, General Strain Theory (GST) focuses on negative relationships with others. As one type of victimization, exposure to violence is significantly related to juvenile crime and substance abuse. In addition, victimized adolescents commonly experience post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, little research has investigated the mediating role of PTSD in the association between violent victimization and juvenile delinquency. Using data from the National Survey of Adolescents (1995), the present study examines the direct effects of sexual assault, physical assault, and witnessing violence on inner- (alcohol and illicit drug use) and outer-directed behaviors (property and violent crime). This study also examines the mediating role of PTSD, based on an overall scale of PTSD as well as the individual components of PTSD (re-experiencing, avoidance/numbing, and hyperarousal). Logistic regression analyses and the Sobel test were used to examine the hypotheses. Findings in the study provide support for the proposition of GST that violent victimization increases the risk of juvenile crime and substance use. Findings also indicate that exposure to violence results in a higher probability of exhibiting PTSD symptoms. Finally, PTSD clusters partially mediate the link between violent victimization and outer-directed responses. However, the expected mediating effect between violent victimization and inner-directed responses was not found. Theoretical implications and limitations are discussed.

For years the causes of juvenile delinquency have drawn a lot of attention from the scientific community and have become a widely studied concept in research literature. Causes of juvenile delinquency have become an important aspect of criminological study because with the knowledge of what contributes to delinquency, the scientific community can possibly slow down the continuous act of offending, also known as continuity, through implementation of prevention strategies. Criminological theory is used to define and help understand why certain contributors are the foundation for juvenile delinquency, along with the continuity of crime for an adolescent but also what factors contribute to a decrease in criminal activity, known as desistance. Some predictors of juvenile delinquency that researchers have focused on are the individual characteristics such as peer influence, family environment, parenting styles, school environment, and community structure (Shreck, Fisher, & Miller, 2004).

The purpose of this study is to try to determine some of the leading causes of juvenile delinquency in Stephens County so as to recommend methods of prevention and treatment.

Thesis (M.S.C.J.)--Bowling Green State University, 2008. / Document formatted into pages; contains vi, 60 p. : 1 map. Includes bibliographical references.

Abstract In Sweden all persons under the age of 18 are considered children. The age when it is possible to be held responsible for a criminal act, and therefor convicted in court, is 15. Society’s and, perhaps first and foremost, the authority’s attitude towards juvenile crime is that they should not be equal adults in the process within criminal law. Because children are considered essential for the society of tomorrow, it is important to pay extra attention to crimes committed by juveniles. The social services authorities are considered to have the best resources and competence to handle this group of juveniles. In the criminal law process the prosecutor requests a statement regarding the young person who is reasonably suspected of a criminal act. The statement should contain information about if the young person is in need of certain interventions from social services in order to prevent unfavorable development. The conclusion that has been drawn when the statements has been reviewed is that a borderland has been created where social law and criminal law overlap. This overlapping is in a way a collision where social aspects and principles of criminal law have to meet. However, it is not always easy to make both sides satisfied. As a way to meet the needs of both sides the borderland becomes a compromise consisting of the process regarding the juveniles. The purpose of this essay is to describe and understand the compromise that has been made where statements and young juveniles are existing. The aim of this essay is to study 23 statements from social services that prosecutor request and the 23 court records attached to them. All statements and court records are regarding persons between 15 – 17 years old. The study is limited to the period between 2010-01-01 to 2010-12-31. This essay has been from a qualitative point of view where the discourse analysis as an text analytical method has been used to understand the collected statements and court records. Central results is that the statements reviewed in this essay overall are satisfying in fulfilling the social law and criminal law aspects. However the results also point out that an uncertainty within the social services regarding the design of the statements also is to be found. Descriptions of social aspects about the young juvenile behind the statement seems to be important to emphasize.

The study had two aims. The first aim was to develop and present an understanding of the lived experience of selected individual prisoners relating to their formal education and vocational training. The second aim was to identify points of potential heuristic interest relating to ostensible needs for social action to reduce the incidence of juvenile and continuing engagement by individuals in criminal activities, and to address education and vocational training issues relating to the integration or reintegration of incarcerated offenders into the wider Australian society after their release from custody. A constructivist conceptual framework was adopted to guide the selection of the methodology of the study and the interpretation of the data obtained through implementation of the methodology. The methodology involved analysis of written transcripts of audio-recorded self-narratives of selected prisoners to generate the data used in the study. Prisoners from three Queensland correctional centres for adult males were selected for participation in the study primarily on the basis of their personal history of juvenile and continuing engagement in criminal offending principally associated with obtaining financial income, and their willingness to voluntarily participate. Participants’ self-narratives, relating principally to their lived experience of formal education and vocational training, were audio-recorded in individual, relatively unstructured interview sessions with the researcher. Written transcripts of the audio-recordings of interview sessions with a total of 15 participants were selected for analysis on the basis of their apparent relevance to the aims of the study. Two general types of narrative analysis methods were used to analyse the transcripts. The first of these was simple inspection of each transcript, which was used to identify categories of background information about the participants, including selected inferred general characteristics of such prisoners, and to identify instances of the content of these categories in individual cases. Inferred characteristics of prisoners were constructed from a review of literature relating to prisoners in Australia, and were selected for inclusion in the study on the basis of claimed relationships between people’s experience of disadvantage during their juvenile years and their engagement in a criminal career which they began in their juvenile years...

The myth of the “super-predator” offender was adopted by newspaper media in the mid-1990s characterizing “violent”, urban, and minority juvenile offenders. The phrase originated from newspaper headlines of the 1980s and 1990s, but limited research has identified whether this con-struct predated DiIulio and Fox’s crime surge prediction. This study sampled juvenile crime news items from The Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Times and The New York Times (N=2,008) 1985-1995 with defined search criteria of juvenile actors, “violent” juvenile crime, and/or juvenile drug crime. A descriptive analysis of the data determined reporting trends sought for a “period effect” caused by the publicity of the prediction and searched for the pre-existence of “super-predator” construct. Finally, a series χ2 test determined the statistical independence of “super-predator” offender, the victim, and crime characteristics, from variables of news article prominence. This study found support for identifiable trends in juvenile crime reporting, no identifiable “period effect” and mixed, but ultimately null findings, in pre-establishing the super-predator media construct. The χ2 test determined the statistical independence of “super-predator” offender, the victim, and crime characteristics, found some characteristics were statically independent of variables of article prominence, but that these relationships are weak.

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Socialtjänsten har ett stort ansvar när det kommer till barn och unga och ska verka för att de växer upp under goda och trygga förhållande. Att arbeta med barn och unga inom ramen för socialarbete beskrivs som utmanande och många socialarbetare som arbetar med denna målgrupp tenderar att drabbas av sekundär traumatisering och utbrändhet. Hur socialarbetare hanterar och upplever olika känslor som uppstår i deras professionella möte med barn och unga är dock ett område som är relativt outforskat trots att det är något som kan få betydelse för alla involverade. Syftet med denna studie har varit att förstå hur socialarbetarnas känsloarbete ser ut och påverkas i mötet med barn och unga som begått allvarligare brott, för att belysa och tydliggöra socialarbetarnas behov. I denna studie har intervjuer genomförts med sex socionomer som på olika sätt arbetar inom ramen för socialtjänsten i Sverige. Resultatet indikerar att socialarbetare aktivt använder sig av känsloarbete för att upprätthålla professionalism och försöka göra skillnad. Samtidigt upplever de svårigheter att förankra teoretisk kunskap i det praktiska arbetet. Studien indikerar att det kan vara värdefullt att förstå hur socialarbetarnas känsloarbete ser ut för att bidra med kunskap relevant för professionell utveckling och det relationskapande arbetet. / Social services have a great responsibility when it comes to children and young people work to ensure that they grow up in good and safe conditions. Working with children and young people within the framework of social work is described as challenging and many social workers who work with this group tend to suffer from secondary traumatization and burnout. However, how social workers handle and experience different emotions that arise in their professional encounter with children and young people is an area that is relatively unexplored, even though it is something that can be important for everyone involved. The purpose of this thesis has been to understand how social workers emotional labour looks like and is affected in the meeting with children and young people who have committed serious crimes, to highlight and clarify the social workers needs. In this study, interviews have been conducted with six social workers who work within social services in Sweden. The results indicate that social workers actively use emotional labour to maintain professionalism and to try to create change. At the same time, the social workers experience difficulties in anchoring the theoretical knowledge in the practical work. The study indicates that it is valuable to understand social workers emotional labour to contribute knowledge relevant to professional development and the relationship-building work.