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The aim of the current paper was to examine temperament profiles and temperament dimensions as risk factors for persistent criminal behavior in juveniles who offended (JOs). A sample of 137 male adolescents from a Swiss detention center and 137 age and sex matched community controls were included in the present study. Temperament was measured with the Junior Temperament and Character Inventory (JTCI). Using Latent Profile Analysis (LPA), three temperament profiles were found, a "moderate," an "adventurous-disinhibited" (higher levels of novelty seeking, lower levels of harm avoidance, reward dependence, and persistence), and a "worried-passive" profile (higher levels of harm avoidance, low persistence). None of the profiles and dimensions were associated with detention sample (i.e., JO) status. In JOs, the "novelty seeking" scale predicted recidivism after release from detention even when controlling for other covariates. Further research should address temperament profiles and temperament dimensions in larger samples of JOs to elaborate their relation to previous and future offending behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite increasing evidence on the exploitation of young people into criminal activity, their perspectives on and experiences of exploitative processes are not well understood. Despite progress in Great Britain with regard to 'County Lines' exploitation, and in the Republic of Ireland regarding youth criminality and grooming, the subjective accounts of how young people understand the phenomenon of child criminal exploitation (CCE) remain under-evaluated. This exploratory study captures the perspectives of Irish youth on CCE and draws on the theory of social capital to explore the social structures that enable CCE and the (limited) choices available to the young people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article addresses specific issues regarding the protection of victims' rights during the investigation of crimes against life and health committed by members of youth informal groups (associations). It emphasizes that modern criminology's theoretical and applied research is focused on finding optimal methods for investigating crimes committed by members of such groups. It is highlighted that in the structure of criminal offenses committed by youth informal groups, crimes against life and health rank second, with nearly one-third involving serious and moderately severe bodily injuries. This is because group violence tends to be more brutal than individual acts, and in all criminal proceedings involving violent crimes, such offenses were committed in groups. There is a noted lack of works dedicated to protecting the rights of victims during the investigation of crimes against life and health committed by members of youth informal groups (associations). The research focuses on understanding the mechanisms that ensure the effective protection of the rights and legitimate interests of victims, analyzing legislative gaps that significantly complicate or even prevent their effective protection. The analysis of international legal principles and standards identified a set of measures that may enable a victim-centered approach in investigating this category of crimes: raising awareness and providing immediate legal, social, and medical assistance (including informing victims of their procedural rights, such as the right to protection and compensation, and access to specialized support services); ensuring physical and psychological protection of victims; employing special interrogation tactics to minimize secondary victimization (investigators should consider the age, psychological condition, health status, and location of the interrogation - whether at the victim's home, healthcare facility, or investigator's office); using audiovisual recordings to reduce the number of interrogations; and ensuring compensation for damages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effective communication tools are essential for computer-aided approaches to policy analysis and design. The System Dynamics approach relies on model diagrams, such as Causal Loop Diagrams (CLDs), to communicate findings to clients. Despite their importance, there has been limited examination of the effectiveness of such diagrams in supporting professionals' reasoning about complex problems. In this study, we employed a mixed-method design with two sequential stimuli (CLD/Text or Text/CLD) to examine the impact of CLDs on professionals' (N = 14) ability to engage in systems thinking and information utilization. Through a case study on youth crime, utilizing a think-aloud method, we prompted police and municipal professionals to articulate their understanding of the problem's causes and the potential impact of an intervention. Additionally, we explored the influence of self-efficacy, response efficacy, and the need for cognition. Findings suggest that presenting a CLD following textual information enhances systems thinking and information utilization. We discuss implications and potential directions for future research.

Objectives: We examine how normative school transitions (e.g., moves from elementary to middle school) shape adolescents' experiences with three network processes that inform delinquency: delinquent popularity, delinquent sociability, and friend selection on shared delinquency participation. Methods: By applying stochastic actor-oriented models to a sample of panel data on 13,752 students from 26 school districts in the PROSPER study, we compare outcomes for students who change schools between 6th and 7th grade to those who remain in the same building. Results: We find that adolescents who transition schools between these grades have significantly different experiences with delinquency-related network processes when compared to their peers who do not make this change. For instance, in schools that merge students from multiple elementary schools to a single middle school, delinquent youth experience a reduction in their popularity and sociability following the school transition. These declines do not characterize the social experiences of delinquent adolescents who do not change schools during this period. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that school districts can organize transition patterns to provide youth a chance to sever harmful connections, start anew, and reduce their participation in delinquency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crime in high schools has become a major concern all over the world. High schools in Nzhelele East Circuit, Vhembe District, Limpopo Province, South Africa also experience waves of youth crime perpetrated by learners. The aim of this study was to explore family factors which contribute to youth crime amongst learners in high schools in Nzhelele East Circuit. Three high schools (i.e. Mushaathoni, Nndweleni and Mphephu) known for high rate of crime were selected. Quantitative research approach was used. Survey questionnaires were administered among learners to collect quantitative data. Stratified random sampling was used to survey 40 grade 10 and 40 grade 11 learners from each of the three high schools. In total, 240 learners participated in this study. Data was analyzed using the SPSS instrument. Appropriate ethical principals were applied to ensure that research participants were not harmed. The study found that youth crime in high schools was attributed to family factors such as absence of parents, poor parenting style, abuse and domestic violence, poverty, divorce, single parenting, and family size. The study recommended the need for a multi-pronged strategy through mobilization of relevant stakeholders (families, community leaders, education authorities, law enforcement agencies and other relevant government department to curb youth crime in high schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Juveniles contribute to crime in natural resource-based boom communities, but there has been very little research examining the extent of their involvement. To respond to this gap in the literature, two indicators of youth arrests and court referrals in North Dakota—the state hardest hit by the 2000s oil boom—were examined. Although arrest rates for North Dakota youth were more than two times higher than the national average in 2019, almost three-quarters of them were for minor offenses. In addition, arrest and court referral rates in oil-producing counties were lower than those for non oil-producing counties. When controlling for demographic and economic factors, and county-specific fixed effects in panel analyses from 2011 to 2019, oil production is negatively associated with youth arrest rates, but positively associated with juvenile court referrals. However, oil-producing counties had very strong county-specific fixed effects which on average raised youth arrest and court referral rates. Arrest rates were also positively associated with unemployment rates while median household income was negatively associated with Group B offenses and juvenile court referrals. Implications for future research into the boom-crime relationship are discussed in light of these findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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In this study, we use 1980–2019 longitudinal age-arrest data from Taiwan and applied the age-period-cohort-interaction (APC-I) model (Luo & Hodges, 2022) to examine the stability or change in the age-arrest distributions across five offenses. We focus on two research questions: (1) whether the shape of age-arrest curves in Taiwan diverges from the Hirschi and Gottfredson's (HG) invariant premise after accounting for period and cohort effects; and (2) whether any observed period or cohort effects on age patterns vary depending on offense type. Findings indicate overall consistency in the shape of Taiwan's age-arrest distributions after adjusting for period and cohort effects, which are characterized by relatively older peak ages and symmetrical spread-out distributions that diverge considerably from HG's invariant projection and prototypical US age-arrest patterns. In addition, we find that period effects have contributed to higher arrest rates in recent years, and cohort effects have impacted somewhat the shape of Taiwan's age-arrest distributions. These findings, along with recent cross-sectional evidence from Taiwan, South Korea, and India (Steffensmeier et al., 2017; 2019; 2020), further confirm that the aggregate age-crime relationship is robustly influenced by country-specific processes and historical and social transformations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines how evaluability assessments can be designed and conducted to generate meaningful and actionable results for reducing youth crime in Jamaica. It draws on case illustrations from the 2021 'Testing, Testing' CAPRI research study report to highlight the nexus between research and evaluation and promote adopting practices that can enhance the quality and relevance of evaluations conducted within the Caribbean region and beyond. The findings suggest that data needed to inform evaluation and evidenced-based policymaking remain limited despite re-energised regional and global efforts to address this challenge. Particularly, low data quality, production, and use continue to hinder measuring progress on the Sustainable Development Goals. The article, therefore, offers an accessible decolonising framework for understanding, supporting and critically assessing how inertia within the context of evaluation practice can be challenged. Concrete suggestions for action include using local knowledge and underutilised techniques such as evaluability assessments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The implementation of child justice reforms often lingers or fails because it has not been systematically planned, properly communicated or adequately resourced. There are also many social, cultural and systemic barriers to child justice reforms, but these barriers are often poorly understood and meekly addressed. Progress in implementing rights-based comprehensive child justice systems has been slow, and there is a growing interest in understanding why, in many countries, child justice reforms have made relatively little progress over the past 30 years. This article reviews the experience of child justice reforms in Vietnam and discusses the broader question of policy transfer, specifically the translation of international children's rights standards and norms into national child justice laws and policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using critical race theory and institutional ethnography as frameworks, this paper investigates the Extra-Judicial Sanctions (EJS) Program, as implemented in Calgary, Alberta, and its lack of ability to achieve transformative restorative justice in the cases of racialized immigrant youth. The failure to recognize the impact of race, ethnicity, and immigrant status in the Youth Criminal Justice Act is considered problematic as this paper challenges the notion of color blindness. It is suggested that a color-conscious approach be used in the EJS Program to incorporate inclusive institutional policies explicitly to foster a sense of belonging among racialized immigrant youth.

In criminological country comparisons, countries are often assumed to be relatively homogeneous units ('methodological nationalism'). Within individual countries, there seems to be a more or less uniform understanding of crime. In contrast to this supposition, we assume the possibility that interpretations of deviance or crime can also diverge to a great extent within countries. Based on an explorative comparative study with young people in Japan and Germany, we show that there are both similarities and differences: The youths we interviewed in the two countries share some views on norms and norm violations (for instance, relating to school norms which they, at the same time, question, and acknowledge), while in others they differ (e.g. concerning the assessment of the severity of deviant behavior). Criminological country comparisons, we conclude, should pay more attention to controversies on the definition of deviance and crime and to heterogeneity within countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australian children have few legal rights and in the context of youth justice, community safety tends to be prioritised over the best interests and wellbeing of children. "Tough on crime" approaches to youth justice law and policy have been influenced by penal populism, whilst the voices of practitioners who work with young people who commit offences remain largely ignored. We interviewed 92 practitioners who work in criminal law settings in a low socioeconomic area in Queensland, Australia, to ascertain their views on the effectiveness of criminal law interventions in their community. Practitioners recognised the need to ensure the safety of the community when dealing with the offending behaviour of children, but they felt that current criminal law responses do not achieve this goal. Instead, they were in favour of interventions that prioritised children's wellbeing so that the causes of their offending behaviour were addressed. Whilst they did not use rights-based language, their suggestions for reform were consistent with the protection of children's fundamental rights as recognised by international law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies a probation program in Cologne, Germany. The program, which has a clear rehabilitative focus, offers intensified personal support to serious juvenile offenders over the first 6 months of their probation period. To evaluate the program's impact on recidivism, we draw on two research designs. Firstly, a small‐scale randomized trial assigns offenders to probation with regular or intensified support. Secondly, a regression discontinuity design exploits a cutoff that defines program eligibility. The results suggest that the program reduces recidivism. The effect seems persistent over at least 3 years. Our evidence further indicates that the drop in recidivism is strongest among less severe offenders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the impact of local banking market frictions measured by bank failures on youth crime. Using a difference-in-differences framework, we find white and black youth violent crimes increase by 0.11 and 0.66 per 1000 people, respectively, following a bank failure. Further, we find white property crime, petty delinquency and drug crime increase by 0.29, 0.75 and 0.35 per 1000 people. Black youth see a rise in drug crimes by 0.88 per 1000 people. Results by gender reveal male drug crimes rise by 2.4 and female property crimes by 0.66 per 1000 people, respectively. The economic effects are most persistent for petty delinquency crimes committed by white youths. Furthermore, we find evidence that bank failures worsen local labor markets conditions by increasing white youth unemployment and reduce employment in the limited-services restaurant industry; channels that likely alter the opportunity cost of youth crime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we examine whether different agents of socialization—family, school, and peers—are differentially associated with offending among different immigrant groups. Our expectation is to find that the association between delinquent friends and offending is stronger for first- and second-generation immigrants than for youths of native Swedish background. We use data from four nationally representative self-report studies of 21,504 adolescents with an average age of 15 years in Sweden. The results show that both first- and second-generation immigrants report committing more offenses than natives. The association is rather weak and the two predictors account for only a marginal amount of the variance in total offending. The results also show that the association between delinquent friends and offending is stronger for both first- and second-generation immigrants than for natives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using critical race theory and institutional ethnography as frameworks, this paper investigates the Extra-Judicial Sanctions (EJS) Program, as implemented in Calgary, Alberta, and its lack of ability to achieve transformative restorative justice in the cases of racialized immigrant youth. The failure to recognize the impact of race, ethnicity, and immigrant status in the Youth Criminal Justice Act is considered problematic as this paper challenges the notion of color blindness. It is suggested that a color-conscious approach be used in the EJS Program to incorporate inclusive institutional policies explicitly to foster a sense of belonging among racialized immigrant youth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For more than 60 years, scholars have often likened chronic and persistent offending to 'living a criminal way of life', yet these evocative motifs have not received much empirical scrutiny. In particular, the so-called criminal life-style is often conceptualized as something the chronic young offender opts into as an alternative to other pro-social pathways. Whereas for older offenders, it is something into which they find themselves trapped and unable to escape. The idea that crime is a chosen 'way of life' among chronic young offenders has not yet received sufficient empirical scrutiny. In this study, we use archival data of nationally representative cohort (n = 373) of young offenders in Australian custodial centers who were each asked whether crime was their 'way of life'. From this, we estimate its prevalence and criminal-career correlates, finding that one in three strongly identify with crime as their way of life. Self-identification is also found to be strongly correlated with Indigenous status even after controlling for different features of the juvenile criminal career. In all, our data paint a vivid portrait of a criminal identity that, for the young offender, likely signals a perceived inevitability that evolves in the context of structurally and culturally conditioned opportunities. Understanding this phenomenon among youthful offenders is important if we are to be successful in our attempts to curtail criminal continuity through desistance informed interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The involvement in crime of some young Sudanese-born Victorians has received sustained public attention in recent years. The media coverage of these occurrences has been extensive, with some outlets criticised for sensationalist reporting and prejudiced undertones. A range of views were held across the commentariat including, for example, the notion that Sudanese-Victorian criminal involvement has been overstated; that some level of justice over-representation was inevitable due to the demographics of Sudanese-born Victorians, which skew young and male (i.e. the demographic hypothesis); and that offending rates may be associated with heightened law enforcement responses following a high-profile criminal incident in March 2016 that received protracted media coverage and political commentary (i.e. the racial-profiling hypothesis). This paper sought to address these contentions by (i) examining the offending rates of both young and adult males across three cultural sub-groups (i.e. Sudanese-born, Indigenous Australian, Australian-born) across several offending categories between 2015 and 2018 and (ii) exploring the impact of a high-profile criminal incident in March 2016, on the offending rates of Sudanese-born Victorians. Offending rates were calculated using offender incident data from the Victorian Crime Statistics Agency and population estimates from the Australian Bureau of Statistics Census data. Findings indicate that Sudanese-born individuals figure prominently in both youth and adult offending categories relative to other major cultural sub-groups. Rates for 'crimes against the person' were especially pronounced for Sudanese-born youth and significantly higher than rates for crimes more subject to police discretion (i.e. public order offences). The 'demographic hypothesis' did not hold for the specified age range of 10 to 17 years. An increase in offending was observed post-March 2016 across two offending categories for Sudanese-born Victorians. Findings are contextualised within. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Do the results of research on the relationship between crime and immigration status differ depending on the type of data examined? This question is posed and answered affirmatively in a paper based on a systematic review of ten Danish studies published between 2008 and 2017. The current review is motivated by the seemingly widespread perception that immigrants/descendants are at greater risk for committing crime than others even after adjusting for systematic differences between these groups. Using five criteria of relevance, a systematic search resulted in the identification of ten pertinent studies. The ten studies are reviewed in the current paper and form the basis of the conclusion that research results differ markedly depending on the type of data examined. This implies that public perceptions about crime and immigration status may rest on shaky ground. Five potential explanations are suggested to explain the inconsistencies found in the studies reviewed. Finally, five recommendations for future research are suggested in order move research forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By using US and Western databases, Hirschi and Gottfredson (HG) projected that the age distribution of crime always and everywhere has (a) a spiked adolescent peak and (b) a continuous decline thereafter into old age. In the study described here, we investigated these two core postulates of the age-crime invariance thesis by comparing age-crime distributions in South Korea (SK) with the inverted J-shaped norm proposed by HG. Our analysis considered age-crime schedules for a number of offense types (e.g. homicide) and indexes (e.g. total, violent, and property) and across a variety of measures or statistical tests. The findings revealed considerable divergence in South Korea's age-crime patterns compared with the HG invariance norm. Instead, SK age-crime patterns parallel those for Taiwan (also a collectivist Asian country) as reported recently by Steffensmeier and colleagues (2017). Implications for research and theory on the age-crime relation more broadly are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is the duty of adults in the network around young people (e.g., parents/carers, educators, professionals) to meet their different needs. According to Child-First philosophy, if a young person becomes involved in youth crime and violence, this might be due to unmet needs that have escalated to the point of crisis. Research indicates a gamut of possible constructs indicating needs and strengths, and the aim of the present research was to identify constructs with evidence of association with youth crime and violence amongst 6-18 year olds. A systematic review of systematic reviews was conducted and, from 4819 identified hits, 30 systematic reviews were included. Constructs with more consistent evidence of protective association were rejection or absence of drug or alcohol use, positive family relationships and support, and education and employment opportunities. Constructs with more consistent evidence of being a need were low empathy, dating abuse (both perpetration and victimisation), and bullying perpetration. There is an urgent need for routine, ongoing, and co-produced assessment of children and young people's needs in order to achieve equity in positive outcomes for all children and young people. • Meeting a young person's needs is a crucial part of a public health approach to youth crime and violence • We did a systematic review of systematic reviews of constructs associated with youth crime and violence and included 30 reviews • We identified absence of drug/alcohol use, positive family relationships, and education/employment opportunities as protective factors • Low empathy, dating abuse (both perpetration and victimisation), and bullying perpetration had more consistent evidence of being needs • Routine co-produced assessments of children's needs may help ensure these can be met at an early stage to achieve positive outcomes [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]