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Since the beginning of the twentieth century, criminology has attempted to identify ecological factors affecting the rise or the decrease in crime rates. In this framework, concepts of “social disorganization”, “collective efficacy”, and “social capital” have been coined. Particularly in recent years, the perspective of “social capital” has attracted the interest of criminologists, but, despite the numerous studies conducted in this field, some issues remain open. Firstly, studies conducted outside the US context are few. Secondly, even in North American studies, there is a disagreement over the impact of social capital on crime, in particular on violent crimes. The results of this study, conducted on data obtained by the ISRD3 survey in 23 countries around the world, and addressed to 7th, 8th, and 9th grade students (N = 55,201), try to address such issue: they show a negative correlation between social capital and self-reported crime also outside North America, both for violent crimes and general delinquency. The preventive role played by social capital on crime is also confirmed considering the self-reported data on victimization.

The aims of the present study were to identify empirically supported psychosocial intervention programs for young people with conduct problems and to evaluate the underpinnings, techniques and outcomes of these treatments. We analyzed reviews and meta-analyses published between 1982 and 2016 concerning psychosocial intervention programs for children aged 3 to 12 years with conduct problems. Parent training should be considered the first-line approach to dealing with young children, whereas cognitive-behavioral approaches have a greater effect on older youths. Family interventions have shown greater efficacy in older youths, whereas multi-component and multimodal treatment approaches have yielded moderate effects in both childhood and adolescence. Some limitations were found, especially regarding the evaluation of effects. To date, no single program has emerged as the best. However, it emerges that the choice of intervention should be age-specific and should take into account developmental differences in cognitive, behavioral, affective and communicative abilities.

Background: The juvenile justice system's interventions are expected to help reduce recidivism. However, previous studies suggest that official processing in juvenile court fails to reduce adolescents' criminal behavior in the following year. Longer term effects have not yet been investigated with a rigorous method. This study used propensity score matching to assess the impact of juvenile court processing into young adulthood. Method: Participants were part of a prospective longitudinal study of 1,037 boys from low- socioeconomic areas of Montreal, followed from ages 6-25 years. During their adolescence, 176 participants were processed in juvenile court, whereas 225 were arrested, but not sent to court. Propensity score matching was used to balance the group of participants exposed to juvenile court and the unexposed comparison group on 14 preadolescent child, family and peer characteristics. The two groups were compared on their official adult criminal outcomes. Results: The risk of conviction for an adult offence was 50.0% for court-processed participants compared with 24.3% for their matched counterparts, OR = 3.13, 95% CI = 1.80-5.44. Court-processed participants committed an average of 0.39 violent crimes, compared with 0.15 for their matched counterparts; Poisson model IRR = 2.60, 95% CI = 1.39-4.87. They also committed an average of 2.38 nonviolent crimes, compared to 1.30 for their matched counterparts, IRR = 1.87, 95% CI = 1.19-2.93. Conclusions: Rather than decreasing recidivism, juvenile court intervention increased both violent and nonviolent future crimes. Along with previous studies, this study highlights a pressing need for more research and knowledge transfer about effective interventions to reduce recidivism among youths who commit crime. Language: en

This paper on Cesare Lombroso aims to assess his contribution to the criminological sciences. Although much praised worldwide, Lombroso was also the target of scathing criticism and unmitigated condemnation. Examination of Lombroso's method of data collection and analysis reveals his weakness. Indeed, his approach was extremely naive, simplistic and uncritical, aimed at irrefutably demonstrating the hypotheses that he championed, without exercising the methodological caution that was already beginning to characterize scientific research in his day. However, we must acknowledge that his biological theories of crime are undergoing new developments as a result of the recent success of biological psychiatry. On the other hand we should recognize that his work was not limited to his biological central theory; rather, it covered a range of cues and concepts, for the most part ignored, that demonstrate his interest in the economic, cultural and social factors that impact on crime. For these reasons, Lombroso appears to have anticipated many modern conceptions regarding delinquent behavior and criminal justice, such as those of restorative justice, the so-called "situational" theories of criminal behavior and white collar crime.

This article provides an overview of juvenile justice in Italy. It begins by charting the birth and evolution of the Italian juvenile justice system, from the establishment of juvenile courts in 1934 to the expansion of the administrative sector after 1956. It then turns to juvenile justice after the decentralization and reform of the country’s welfare system and the changes produced by the introduction of a new juvenile justice procedure after 1989. It also examines the penal code provisions relating to the arrest and detention of minors, with particular emphasis on judicial pardon, acquittal on the grounds of inability to understand and to form intent, dismissal on the grounds of the insignificance of the offense, suspension of the trial and imposition of a probation order, and custodial sentence. The article concludes with a discussion of some of the trends and patterns of youth crime in Italy.

A number of recent theories suggest that high civicness, civic participation and social capital protect a community from deviant behavior. Most empirical studies of this hypothesis have been conducted in North America. This paper examines to what extent this hypothesis applies to Italy and to three forms of violent death: homicide, suicide, and drug overdose, using the Putnam concept of civicness. Official statistics on civicness, unemployment, per capita G.D.P., urbanization, couples' separation and age group concentration from the 95 sub-regions (provinces) of Italy were used as predictors of violent death. Among regions, homicide and suicide rates were negatively correlated. Southern provinces had more homicides, while northern provinces had more suicides and deaths from drug overdose. Analyses of interactions among independent variables revealed that certain relationships, which at first sight appeared to concern the whole of Italy, in reality concern only the north or only the south. This suggests the existence of specific effects, whereby some independent variables are only triggered in the particular conditions encountered in the north or in the south of Italy. Civicness was negatively associated with homicide only in the south, where it was also positively associated with suicide. Death by drug overdose was mostly explained by wealth. The overall pattern of results was more complex than present theories suggest. © 2007 Springer Science + Business Media B.V. A number of recent theories suggest that high civicness, civic participation and social capital protect a community from deviant behavior. Most empirical studies of this hypothesis have been conducted in North America. This paper examines to what extent this hypothesis applies to Italy and to three forms of violent death: homicide, suicide, and drug overdose, using the Putnam concept of civicness. Official statistics on civicness, unemployment, per capita G.D.P., urbanization, couples’ separation and age group concentration from the 95 sub-regions (provinces) of Italy were used as predictors of violent death. Among regions, homicide and suicide rates were negatively correlated. Southern provinces had more homicides, while northern provinces had more suicides and deaths from drug overdose. Analyses of interactions among independent variables revealed that certain relationships, which at first sight appeared to concern the whole of Italy, in reality concern only the north or only the south. This suggests the existence of specific effects, whereby some independent variables are only triggered in the particular conditions encountered in the north or in the south of Italy. Civicness was negatively associated with homicide only in the south, where it was also positively associated with suicide. Death by drug overdose was mostly explained by wealth. The overall pattern of results was more complex than present theories suggest.

To review the literature on the effects of social environments on the development of physical aggression, we have chosen to consider a relatively recent unifying concept— social capital. Initially formulated to explain such phenomena as social stratification and economic development, it has since been utilized to interpret various aspects of life in society. Social capital has been defined as interpersonal relationships that facilitate action (Bourdieu 1980). Social capital, therefore, represents an aspect of social reality that individuals (or groups) utilize as a resource in order to further their own interests and to achieve goals that would otherwise be beyond their reach (Coleman 1990); that is to say, it is the investment and the instrumental use of the resources inherent in social networks (Lin 1999). Or, it has been seen as interpersonal trust (Fukuyama 1995) or networks, norms, and trust that enable participants to act together more effectively to pursue shared objectives (Putnam 1993). Social capital constitutes a resource which is often compared to physical capital (tools, machinery, etc.) and human capital (skills acquired by the individual through education and socialization). Physical capital is created through the transformation of raw materials; human capital through the transformation of persons; social capital through changes in the relationships among persons (Coleman 1990). These succinct definitions hint at two different (though not entirely independent) interpretations of the concept of social capital: the first, which is chiefly micro-social, stresses the importance of relationships, social networks, or links that the individual can utilize; the second, which is mainly macro-social, attaches greater importance to the norms of reciprocity and civic engagement as the features of a given society. In general, however, Eur J Crim Policy Res (2007) 13:235–249 DOI 10.1007/s10610-007-9059-y

One of the most important developments in juvenile justice systems in the western countries over this century has been the 1970s crisis of the well established welfare model, a crisis based on the lack of rights in juvenile procedures, the ineffectiveness of treatment interventions and the failure to decrease delinquency in society. The reaction to this situation assumed different forms in different contexts, and showed numerous contradictions. In some countries the justice model, an adultisation of juvenile justice, became dominant; in other countries the «back to justice » movement was not accepted, and other models developed. In the actual organisation of juvenile justice some trends emerged : deinstitutionalisation, diversion and community alternatives to custody, the utilisation of private resources and volunteers inside a public network and bifurcation between serious and normal offenders. The crisis of the welfare model and critical aspects of the justice model for juveniles has stimulated experts and policy makers to search for new paradigms, such as, for exemple, delinquency management, reparation and mediation, which probably represent important elements of the future of juvenile justice systems.

Civicness' may be defined as that property of the social fabric that is characterized by socio-political commitment, solidarity and mutual trust. From a social ecological perspective it is expected that civic traditions in a given geographical area will have an impact on criminality. The aim of the present study was to test the association between level of civicness and level of juvenile delinquency among the regions of Italy. For the purpose of this study, the term delinquency' encompasses all illegal acts, from minor offences to violent crimes. We hypothesized that regions with high levels of civic commitment would be more successful in the socialization of its youth, and would thus curb its involvement in delinquent behaviour. Results generally supported the hypothesis. Significant negative correlations were observed at three different time periods (in the 1970s, the 1980s, and in the 1990s) between civicness and official records of robbery and attempted murder by minors, and murder committed by both minors and adults. Analyses using data from a large victimization survey confirmed the significant negative correlations between civicness and violent crimes, but also revealed a significant negative correlation between civicness and theft. Finally, analyses which included socio-economic predictors revealed that they overlapped to a great extent with civicness, and thus indicated that the predominance of one over the other could not be determined. Nevertheless, it is concluded that the development of environments in which socio-political commitment, solidarity and mutual trust abound may facilitate the social integration of children and prevent the development of criminal behaviour.

This paper presents cross-cultural research using data from the Second International Self-Report Delinquency Study (ISRD-2) to evaluate the strength and characteristics of the relationship between different kinds of juvenile delinquency and alcohol use, and to investigate whether, and how, different drinking cultures may influence this relationship. The setting is a school-based survey with a self-report questionnaire in a sample of 7th, 8th and 9th grade students (comprising 12–16 year olds) from 25 European countries. After recording data on alcohol consumption among young people in different European countries, we assessed the degree to which property offences, violent offences and gang membership were associated with the use of alcohol. In addition, a multilevel analysis (MLA) was carried out to ascertain whether the association between delinquency and alcohol use was influenced by variations in drinking cultures. Different drinking patterns were observed in Mediterranean and non-Mediterranean countries. Alcohol consumption was more closely related to involvement in violent crimes than to property offences, and correlated with the frequency and seriousness of delinquent behaviour everywhere. MLA showed that gang membership increased the probability of alcohol abuse to a greater degree in non-Mediterranean countries, while involvement in delinquency proved to be associated with alcohol abuse to a similar degree in the different cultural contexts considered. With regard to cultural influences on the relationships between juvenile delinquency and alcohol use, we ascertained that cultural attitudes towards alcohol influence the delinquency–alcohol relationship at the group level rather than the individual level.

The European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research, Vol. 5, No. 2, was focused on early intervention and prevention of juvenile delinquency. The author comments on the issue and focuses on the ethical problems involved with early intervention, such as the labelling effect, the risks of prediction, consent, and undesired effects.

Social capital, collective efficacy, social cohesion, can be defined in various ways and may operate in more or less broad contexts. In general, the social capital perspective has proved useful in helping understand antisocial behavior in many countries, because empirical studies showed that higher levels of social bonds prevent different crimes, in particular homicide and other violent crimes.

The existence of a correlation between the use of alcohol and juvenile delinquency has long been acknowledged. In order to evaluate the strength and the characteristics of this association in various cultural contexts, we analysed data collected as part of the International Self-Report Delinquency Study- 2 (ISRD-2). The sample consisted of of young people (N = 57,771) of both sexes, aged between 12 and 16 years, in 25 European countries. After estimating the prevalence of alcohol consumption among young people involved in property offences and violent offences, we assessed the degree to which these types of delinquency were associated with the use of alcohol in the 25 countries. In addition, we attempted to ascertain the influence of belonging to various types of deviant groups on alcohol use. To this end, we used a Mokken Scale Analysis. With this method, we constructed a scale of “gangness” and correlated the scores with alcohol use among juveniles. The results yielded by the present study indicate that alcohol use and delinquency are closely related with one another. In particular, we observed that alcohol consumption seems to be strongly influenced by involvement in delinquent activities. The nature and characteristics of these relationships suggest that the associations between alcohol use and delinquency are reciprocal rather than one-directional. Consequently, alcohol use constitutes a risk factor for criminal behaviour. Likewise, involvement in delinquency increase the risk of alcohol consumption and, especially, of alcohol abuse.

The juvenile justice system's interventions are expected to help reduce recidivism. However, previous studies suggest that official processing in juvenile court fails to reduce adolescents' criminal behavior in the following year. Longer term effects have not yet been investigated with a rigorous method. This study used propensity score matching to assess the impact of juvenile court processing into young adulthood.Participants were part of a prospective longitudinal study of 1,037 boys from low- socioeconomic areas of Montreal, followed from ages 6-25 years. During their adolescence, 176 participants were processed in juvenile court, whereas 225 were arrested, but not sent to court. Propensity score matching was used to balance the group of participants exposed to juvenile court and the unexposed comparison group on 14 preadolescent child, family and peer characteristics. The two groups were compared on their official adult criminal outcomes.The risk of conviction for an adult offence was 50.0% for court-processed participants compared with 24.3% for their matched counterparts, OR = 3.13, 95% CI = 1.80-5.44. Court-processed participants committed an average of 0.39 violent crimes, compared with 0.15 for their matched counterparts; Poisson model IRR = 2.60, 95% CI = 1.39-4.87. They also committed an average of 2.38 nonviolent crimes, compared to 1.30 for their matched counterparts, IRR = 1.87, 95% CI = 1.19-2.93.Rather than decreasing recidivism, juvenile court intervention increased both violent and nonviolent future crimes. Along with previous studies, this study highlights a pressing need for more research and knowledge transfer about effective interventions to reduce recidivism among youths who commit crime.

In this study, the authors explored the link between deviant youth group (DYG) membership and antisocial behavior through a large student survey conducted by means of the same questionnaire in 62 cities in 30 countries. The sample ( N = 40,678) was made up of 7th-, 8th-, and 9th-grade students, both boys and girls, attending different types of schools. The definition of DYG that the authors used was the one drawn up by the Eurogang network: “Any durable, street-oriented youth group whose own identity includes involvement in illegal activity.” About 4.4% of youths were considered as DYG members according to this definition, with prevalence rates differing markedly among different countries, from less than 1% to more than 16%. In general, DYG membership implied a higher prevalence of delinquency, violence, and alcohol and drug use. Differences between DYG members and nonmembers were greater with regard to more serious antisocial behavior. Although the prevalence of DYG membership varies in different countries, the association between DYG membership and antisocial behavior is quite similar in the different national contexts.

This paper sets out to compare the existence of Juvenile deviant groups in both France and Italy and their characteristics. The comparison between Italy (N=5,236) and France (N=3, 353) is based on the ISRD study of the year 2006 and shows that the term "gang" is commonly used to refer to a group of friends only. The strongest associated variables in both countries to illegal acts are the acceptance of doing illegal things, taking part in delinquent acts, considering the group as a gang as well as spending a lot of time in public places. Delinquent activity of Juvenile delinquent groups varies from one country to another and the French respondents show a greater participation in deviant youth groups than the Italians. Results show some differences in gender participation with a greater involvement of boys, although girls also take part in deviant or delinquent activities, both in Italy and France. At risk behaviour significantly characterises the young participants as well as victimisation. This last point highlights that although deviant or potentially dangerous, these young people are also more vulnerable and in need of protection.

Although a lot of research has been conducted on the delinquency of boys who are members of gangs, only a few quantitative studies have analysed the involvement of girl gang members in delinquency and its link with victimisation. In this study, the prevalence rates of girls who are members of gangs in Italy and in Switzerland are shown. We compared the Italian data (N = 5.784) and Swiss data (N = 3.459) from the second wave of the International Self-Reported Delinquency Study (ISRD-2); the population used for this comparison was made up of teenagers from the ages of 13 to 16. Members of deviant youth groups accounted for 5.7% of the Italian sample and 4.7% of the Swiss sample; in both countries, about a third of gang members were girls. In general, girls who are members of gangs commit more delinquent acts than both girls and boys who are not members of gangs. Girl gang members are also more often victimised than girls and boys who are not members of a deviant youth group.

Background: The present study uses data from a community sample of 779 low-SES boys to investigate whether intervention by the juvenile justice system is determined, at least in part, by particular individual, familial and social conditions, and whether intervention by the juvenile courts during adolescence increases involvement in adult crime. Method: The study considers self-reported crime in childhood and adolescence, and introduces individual, familial and social variables into its analysis. Results: The results show that youths who are poor, impulsive, poorly supervised by their parents, and exposed to deviant friends are more likely, for the same degree of antisocial behavior, to undergo intervention by the Juvenile Court, and that this intervention greatly increases the likelihood of involvement with the penal system in adulthood. The results also show that the various measures recommended by the Juvenile Court exert a differential criminogenic effect; those that involve placement have the most negative impact. Keywords: Juvenile justice, labeling, peer contagion, juvenile delinquency, adult crime. The present research analyzed data from a large longitudinal study in order to investigate the possible negative effect of contact with the justice system on young people. The notion that youths who come into contact with judicial institutions may, paradoxically, display higher rates of criminal behavior as adults dates back to the 19th century, when early reformers first noted that juvenile prisons could be regarded as veritable ‘schools of crime’. More recently, two theoreticalperspectiveshavebeenproposedtoexplainthe possiblenegativeimpactofthejuvenilejusticesystem on youths’ delinquent behaviors: the labeling perspective and the deviant peer contagion perspective (Dodge, Dishion, & Lansford, 2006; Warr, 2002). The labeling perspective focuses on two aspects: the first concerns how and why certain individuals, and not others, undergo intervention by the agencies of social control and are labeled as delinquents; the second concerns the effects of such labeling on subsequent criminal behavior. A key concept in labeling theory is that police officers are more likely to arrest subjects who are poor, deprived or belong to minority groups; thattheytendtousetheirdiscretionarypowerinfavor of those persons who are socially more privileged; and that the justice system tends to inflict harsher punishment on more deprived individuals. According to the labeling theory, judicial intervention operates selectively by targeting subjects who are disadvantaged, and facilitates young people’s initiation to a criminal career, in that it tends to transform occasionaldevianceintosystematicbehaviorbymodifying

The aim of this study was to examine to what extent community characteristics counterbalance propensities towards homicide and robbery. Data were obtained for each of the 95 Italian provinces on homicide rate and robbery rate from 1992 to 1995. Multiple regressions were used to predict these homicide and robbery rates from a measure of civic engagement (Civicness) assessed during the same period, and from other socioeconomic variables: unemployment, family break up, and geographical characteristics. The predictors explained 77% of the variance among the Italian provinces for robbery, and 61% of the variance for homicide. The predictive patterns were somewhat different for homicide and robbery, but in each case civicness interacted with territorial variables. In the case of homicide, civicness had a preventive impact only in the southern provinces. For robbery, the protective impact was limited to provinces which were urbanized and had large metropolitan areas.

Background Three different explanations have been given for the observation that adolescent gang members report more delinquent behaviour than their counterparts who do not affiliate with gangs: a) adolescents who commit more crimes join gangs (selection hypothesis); b) gang membership facilitates deviant behaviour (facilitation hypothesis); c) selection and facilitation work interactively (enhancement hypothesis). The aim of this study was to test these hypotheses, while controlling for self-reported delinquency, friends' delinquency, and individual as well as family characteristics. Method The sample included 756 boys first assessed when they attended kindergarten in disadvantaged areas of Montreal. Gang membership was assessed at the ages of 14, 15 and 16 years. Delinquency and drug use data were collected from self-reports and court files at the same ages. Results Gang members displayed far higher rates of delinquent behaviour and drug use than non-gang members. The results support the facilitation model for transient gang members (i.e., youths in a gang during only one of the three periods considered) and the enhancement model for stable gang members (i.e., youths in a gang for at least two of the periods considered), for person and property offences. The association between gang membership and delinquency persisted after introducing the control variables. Additional analyses showed that the effect associated with belonging to a gang was beyond that of simply having delinquent friends. Conclusion Preventing the creation and participation in such gangs should reduce the frequency of antisocial behaviour during adolescence.

The authors examine the methods employed by longitudinal research from the point of view of clinical criminology, in order to study the problems connected with the construction of “data” and with the interpretation of results. They underline the differences and similarities between the two approaches and, in particular, the time dimension, which is fundamental for both perspectives.