Social Factors and Offending P2

What type of friends is asc with delinquency?

having delinquent/antisocial friends as an adolescent

delinquents are more likely than non-deqs to have deq friends

How can having antisocial peers encourage others to be as/offend?

social learning theory/modelling

increased contact w/ del peers allows more change to model del attitudes and bv

certain people will be more likely to be looked upto and copied - impact of respected role models in grp

What did Gottfredson & Hirschi (1990) come up with?

general theory of crime which proposes that the key cause of crime is a lack of indv self ctrl so youths w/ poor sc end up together rather than learning of del bvs from peers

What are gangs and their impact/

relatively durable and predominantly street-based grp who perceives themselves and are perceived by others as a distinct grp 

engage in criminal activity and violence and lay claim over terriroty

have some sort of identifying structural feature and are in conflict w/ other similar grps

What do gangs provide opportunities for?

contact w/ del/violent peers - increased likelihood of becoming dels/more del

What does research show abt gangs?

gang membership predicts delinquency beyond just asc w/ del peers

What three models have been proposed to explain the rs bt gangs and offending?

selection - gangs recruit delinquent members

social facilitation - gangs provide opportunities for adolescents to become delinquent

enhancement - gangs recruit adolescents who are the verge of being del and escalate this bv

What are the 3 models really good for?

predicting bv

How does the selection model predict offending bv?

gangs recruit del indvs who are del regardless of gang membership

gang members higher than non-gang members for rates of delinquency

indvs will have same rate of del b4, during and after gang membership

gang not responsible for members delinquency bc they were already offending b4 they came into the cycle/grp

How does the SF model predict offending bv?

gangs provide opportunities for adolescents to become del

gang members higher rates of del than non-gm only during membership

indvs only delinquent when a gang member

gang responsible for del

How does the enhancement model predict offending bv?

gangs recruit adolescents who are (ob the verge of) del and escalate this bv

gang members higher than non gang members for delinquency

indvs who are/have been in a gang have higher del when in gang than b4/after but still del

can be argued that this combines selection and facilitation processes

What did Thornberry et al? (1993) do?

did a longitudinal study which looked at people before, during and after gang membership, del and drug use and looked at their offending

examined bt grp dfrs and w/in grp dfrs over time

considered transient GM (member at 1 point only) and stable GM (member at 2 or more points)

What did Thornberry find about transient GM?

results most consistent w/ SF model

del highest when GM and when non, lvl of del same as non gang members

What did Thornberry find about stable GM?

results consistent w/ a combo of SF and enhancement models

del consistency high compared to non-gang members

for those who were members at 2 not 3 time points, some evidence that del was higher than when not in a gang

What are some issues in gang research?

gangs are oft defined by violence of members but violence then explained by the gang

if gangs are known by police, maybe their violence is more noticable - labelling

is a crime by a GM gang-related or is it due to indv motivation

What are issues to consider abt schools and offending?

disengagement and early drop-out of school

academic ability and academic attainment

How can disengagement from school be captured?

through various indices such as school bonding, failure, attachment to schools, grades and truances

What is school disengagement asc with?

problems bvs in school, truancy, drug use and offending during adolescence and early drop out from school

What does longitudinal research show about school disengagement?

predicts short-term outcomes sa drug use, violence and offending and longer term effects of school DE also support that is it asc w/ off and violence

What did Henry, Knight, Thornberry (2012) do?

longitudinal study with 911 boys (US) and followed them up through certain ages and looked at a range of bv outcomes, finding that school de was asc w/ drop out from school

What did HKT find?

for all outcomes, higher SE was asc w/ poor outcomes at all 3 time points and for early adult outcomes, schl drop out mediated the rs bt SE and self-reported offending, official arrests and self reported drug and alcohol use

What did Rocque et al. (2017) do?

longitudinal study with 911 boys in UK and found that boys who were truant bt 12-14 years were asc with violent and nv convictions, self reported offending, fights and problem drinking

What is there an important distinction bt?

academic ability and academic attainment/performance

they both predict later del but attainment is more predictive than ability

Why might there be a link bt schools, parenting and offending bv?

lack of parental support and encouragement

home where books and learning not valued

lack of financial resources to equip child for education

What can we do to help lower the link bt schools, parenting and offending bv? (3)

interventions to reduce schl DE and dropout

interventions w/ parents to increase their engagemnt w/ school and their cdr’s education

investment in schools to enhance quality of leadership and teaching

What is it important to acknowledge?

that the majority of cdr who experience these risk factors do not go on to offend

What are protective factors?

predict low likelihood of poor outcomes - 2 types, direct and buffering

What are direct PF?

can simply be the opposite of rfs

e.g., positive parenting, good supervision, pos attitudes to school, low lvls of impulsive

What are buffering PFs?

predict low likelihood of poor outcomes when there are risk factors present (attenuate the impact of rfs) - often same as direct pfs but act in a diff way

e.g. strong emotional bond with non family member might offset less effective parenting or strong parent rs might offset socioeconomic deprivation

What assumption often exists?

that the env impact on all cdr in the same way but the env might be affected by moderator variables ( a v that explained when X affects y)

What is differential susceptibility?

some characteristics of a child makes them more/less susceptible to effects of a rf

in a neg env, susc cdr do worse

in a pos env, SC do better

in a normal env, SC do almost as well as other cdr

non SC dvlp normally regardless of env they experience