Youth Crime and Justice
How important are social and cultural factors as predictors of youth offending?
Throughout this essay, I am going to be looking at the topic of youth offending. I will be looking at what factors can be used as the predictors for youth offending and in particular I will be researching into how important social and cultural factors as predictors of youth offending. In order to do this, I will be looking at different sociologists theories as far as young offending is concerned and what evidence there is to support these theories. I will then conclude by discussing whether I believe social and cultural factors are important in determining youth offending.
There are many different explanations throughout criminology and sociology concerning youth offending and predictors of it. Many of these explanations focus on individual criminals and try to distinguish certain behavioural or physiological anomalies or abnormalities to separate the criminal from the non-criminal. The theories put forward here put criminal behaviour down to individual differences and is often referred to as individual positivism. Crime is viewed as a biological, psychiatric, personality or learning deficiency.# This theory suggests behaviour is determined by constitutional, genetic or personality factors and views crime as an abnormal individual condition. It is believed that criminals can be treated via medicine, therapy and resocialiation.#
Sociological approaches on the other hand stress the importance of social and cultural factors as the causes of crime. Sociological approaches aimed to account for the distribution of varying amounts of crime within given populations. Such research surrounding this topic started in the 1830 's from the French statistician, Guerry and the Belgian mathematician, Quetelet.# This research involved analysing official statistics on variables such as suicide, educational level, crime rate and age and sex of offenders within given geographic areas for specific
Throughout this essay, I am going to be looking at the topic of youth offending. I will be looking at what factors can be used as the predictors for youth offending and in particular I will be researching into how important social and cultural factors as predictors of youth offending. In order to do this, I will be looking at different sociologists theories as far as young offending is concerned and what evidence there is to support these theories. I will then conclude by discussing whether I believe social and cultural factors are important in determining youth offending.
There are many different explanations throughout criminology and sociology concerning youth offending and predictors of it. Many of these explanations focus on individual criminals and try to distinguish certain behavioural or physiological anomalies or abnormalities to separate the criminal from the non-criminal. The theories put forward here put criminal behaviour down to individual differences and is often referred to as individual positivism. Crime is viewed as a biological, psychiatric, personality or learning deficiency.# This theory suggests behaviour is determined by constitutional, genetic or personality factors and views crime as an abnormal individual condition. It is believed that criminals can be treated via medicine, therapy and resocialiation.#
Sociological approaches on the other hand stress the importance of social and cultural factors as the causes of crime. Sociological approaches aimed to account for the distribution of varying amounts of crime within given populations. Such research surrounding this topic started in the 1830 's from the French statistician, Guerry and the Belgian mathematician, Quetelet.# This research involved analysing official statistics on variables such as suicide, educational level, crime rate and age and sex of offenders within given geographic areas for specific
Bibliography: John Munice (2004) Youth and Crime. 2nd edition. London: Sage Publications Yvonne Jewkes and Gayle Letherby (2002) Criminology: A Reader. London: Sage Publications Sheila Brown (2005) Understanding youth and crime - Listening to youth? London: Open University Press Kerry Carrington and Russell Hogg (2002) Critical Criminology - Issues, debates, challenges. London: Willan Publishing Geoffrey Pearson (1988) Hooligan - A history of respectable fears. Hong Kong: Macmillan Education Ltd. David Downes and Paul Rock (1998) Understanding Deviance - a guide to the sociology of crime and rule breaking. 3rd edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press Roger Hopkins Burke (2001) An Introduction to Criminological Theory. USA: Willan Publishing Katherine S. Williams (2004) Textbook on Criminology. 5th Edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press Clive Coleman and Clive Norris (2000) Introducing Criminology. USA: Willan Publishing