Soc 224

Who classifies as “youth?”

Who classifies as “youth?”

• Specific time in life

• Based on social status rather than age (has not achieved full economic and social independence)

• Socially constructed

• By law

Youth & deviant

• Perceived to have lifestyles centered around ‘deviance’

• Large part of the transition from childhood to adulthood is through deviance (crossing the boundaries)

• Deviant collectively rather than individually.

Troubling youth (as a risk)

primarily a threat to others and to society

Troubled youth (at risk)

• primarily a threat to themselves

  • At any moment, they may become troubling youth (a threat to others if we don’t address their issue) => school shooter

Three dominant ways to count crime or describe crime patterns and trends

• Official (police-reported) statistics

  • CCJS, UCR, etc.

  • Uniform way

• Victimization surveys

  • Most crimes are not reported because they don’t report that to the police

    • Afraid of victimization

• Self-report studies

  • Ask ppl if they have committed crime recently

  • Anonymous

    • Thus ppl will be more likely to report

  • If we missed crime in official statistics or victimization surveys

Why victimization studies cannot report everything?

• The person may not know they are victimized

• Victimless crime (drug use)

Problems with Crime Rates?

• Often deployed with a limited understanding of sociological, demographical, criminological, and legal processes  => significantly affect crime rates

• We need to read changes on crime stats in a cautious and critical way

How to (critically) read changes in crime rates…

• Change in incidence

OR

• Change in definition?

  • Definition in law

• Change in classification?

  • Classification of certain crimes

  • If we classify some crimes as less serious => that crime may increase

• Change in tolerance?

• Change in reporting/charging practices?

  • Hate crimes, sexual assault

• Change in legal priorities?

• Change in exposure?

Youth Crime statistics in Canada

• Since 1992 => steady downward trend in youth crime

• Overrepresentation of youth (12-17)

What should be more focus on in Youth crime Canada?

Should dedicate greater concern to youth and child victimization

Youth at risk (troubled)

• Youth who are victimized by cyberbullyi__ng__ => be pushed toward other troublesome behaviors (substance use)

  • Bullying is a form of strain that lead to negative emotion

Substance usage trend in youth

• Substance use among youth peaked in the 1970s => steadily declined

• Peaked again in the early 1990s => declined once again

• Most significant decline => due to tobacco use

3 most commonly used substances

• alcohol

• e-cigarettes

• cannabis

Tobacco Use

• Today few Canadian youth are smokers => stark contrast to the late 1970s

• Youth smoking is socially controlled

• Smoking in movies has greater impact on youth smoking than tobacco advertising

  • Hollywood and the tobacco industry => long-established relationship

Tobacco industry

• Faced retroactive measures of social control

• Have to show all of their documents

e-Cigarette Use

• Decline in youth smoking => due to rapid increase in the use of e-cigarettes

• Different motivations for vaping

  • cloud chasers

  • substitutes

• Governments have been criticized for their slow implementation of vaping legislation

cloud chasers

• smoke as a hobby

• learn tricks they can perform

substitutes

smokers or former smokers who started vaping to reduce the stigmatization they faced as smokers

Drug Use

• Common conversation => “drug” is often used to refer to those substances that are illegal

  • alcohol and nicotine are both drugs

• Most common drug = marijuana

• If you hang out with individuals who use drugs => you’re more likely to use drugs

What is the greatest cocern of “troubled youth”?

Drug usage

Reasons for drug usage

• Relieve stress

• Form of escape

• Social activity

=> common reasons for most of the population

• Satisfying curiosity

• Showing independence

• Becoming part of a specific peer group

=> unique for youth, oftentimes don’t appear in adults

How others’ usage of drugs can affect you

• Individual

  • Genetic & environment

  • Gang involvement

• Community

  • Norms

  • Economic conditions

• Family

  • Parenting style

• School

  • Academic success

Alcohol Use

• Not really a “deviant” behavior

  • Quite normative and common

• Alcohol industry has been widely criticized

  • Targeting adolescents with the creation of flavored alcoholic beverages (FABs) => alcopops

Probing the Existence of an Alleged Toronto Gang with Rob Ford Ties:

Is there really a gang? Is it the label created by the media and polices or is it real?

We don’t know who to trust

Binge Drinking in University

• 5 drinks in one sitting for males & 4 drinks for females

• University alcohol use => polarized

• University binge drinking is not associated with later alcoholism

More binge drinking among

• Uni students (more than same age peers don’t go to uni)

• On-campus students

• Members of fraternities/sororities

• University athletes

“apprenticeship in drinking”

• University environment is “conducive to binge drinking”

• Youth who didn’t drink in high school find themselves immersed in an environment where alcohol consumption is normative

“Anticipatory drinking”

Students drink to the point of intoxication before going out to a bar => to save money

University alcohol use => polarized

• Binge drinkers => increase

• Abstainers => increase

Controlling Binge Drinking in University Students

• Prevention paradox => not reduce the harm of alcohol consumption

• Population prevention approaches => most effective in reducing harm

Prevention paradox

• Prevention and retroactive efforts

• Target the INDIVIDUAL

Why the prevention paradox not effective?

• Based on the presumption that students who binge drink are “problem drinkers”

• Try to motivate problem drinkers to stop drinking

Population prevention approaches

• Target the __university environmen__t as a whole

  • limited the places around the university that sell alcohol

  • regulating the prices of alcohol in university venues

Youth as a risk (troubling youth)

• School____- and family____-related factors appear to be especially important

• Relationship between peer behaviour and youth crime is a superficial one

Perceptions of youth crime

• Popular images = “out of control” => moral panic

• Constructed within the media => linked to certain ethnic groups and classes, gender

• Portrait of youth crime has been repeatedly painted since the early 20th century

Patterns of youth crime

• Peaked in 1990s, then steadily decline

  => Youth are overrepresented in the criminal justice system (18-24)

5 elements of moral panic

• heightened concern

• hostility toward the offending group

• a certain level of consensus that there is a real threat

• disproportionality

• volatility

Moral panic over girls’ violence (4 ways that violent girls are framed in the news)

• “sinister villains”

• “uncivilized and subhuman”

• “harlots”

• “average Jane... whose violence was an anomaly”

“sinister villains”

manipulate others and enjoy violence

“uncivilized and subhuman”

savages who travel together like “wolfpacks” and attack innocent victims

“harlots”

• related to romantic relationships

• motivated by extreme jealousy or sexual rivalry (slut)

“average Jane... whose violence was an anomaly”

though sympathetic lens

Youth Gangs

• No universal definition

  • Media state that they are moving on to social media

• Membership in gangs is fluid

• Greater risk of gang involvement => youth who experience high levels of marginalization

The Social Construction of Gangs

• “Gangs” are socially constructed

• Those with power identify groups as gangs

• Mmbers of racialized groups are NOT more likely to be involved in a gang

=> more likely to be labelled as such

How media view of youth gang?

• “out of control”

• racialize the “gang problem” => emphasize the race in stories about gangs

Why do Youth Join Gangs?

Gangs will emerge in socially and economically disadvantaged communities

Merton’s strain theory explain gangs

• Gang form as an alternative way of achieving status, social acceptance, and economic success

• Use illegitimate means to achieve goals

Status frustration theory explains gangs

• Lower-class boys join with other similar boys in forming gangs

• Middle-class measuring rod

Differential opportunity theory explains gangs

Gangs live in communities where illegitimate opportunities are more tangible

Ethnographic research on gangs

• Joining a gang is a rational decision

  • Material incentives

  • Recreation

  • Place of refuge & camouflage

  • Physical protection

  • Time to resist

  • Commitment to the community

Material incentives

• Most common reason

• Help you make money (tax free, dealing drugs)

Recreation

• Provide entertainment and a social life

• There are also gay gang members => seeking place for acceptance

Place of refuge & camouflage

• If you commit crimes => your crimes are covered by others

• Provide a level of anonymity

• Remove a sense of personal responsibility for illegal activities

-Physical protection

• Especially for someone who lives in risky neighborhoods

• Victimization increases significantly

Time to resist

Statement of rejection of the type of lives being offered

Commitment to the community

• Gang life is a tradition in some communities

• They can do anything (thief, crime, drugs dealer) so that the poor kids in their neighborhood can have food

  => can cause harm to society

  => to make sure their community is safe and happy

Gangs with Neighbourhoods

• Often view their existence as an embodiment of the neighborhood

• Neighborhoods => provide gangs with financially

• Mandates any perceived or actual threat needs to be met with strong resistance and defense of territory

One of the gang’s most defining elements is

A gang’s identification with a specific turf or territory

Vehement ‘protection’

the primary motivation for gang warfare

Who benefits from moral panics about gangs?

• Media

• Politician

• Interest groups and community agencies

• Law enforcement

• Gangs themselves

Media benefits from moral panics about gangs bc:

Audiences are more likely to read sensational, dramatic stories => increase profit

Politician benefits from moral panics about gangs bc:

• Moral entrepreneurs

• Vow to toughen legislation and enforcement if elected => get more votes

Interest groups and community agencies benefit from moral panics about gangs bc:

Provide social programs => may receive more funding

Law enforcement benefit from moral panics about gangs bc:

Can secure more funding to hire more officers

Gangs themselves benefit from moral panics about gangs bc:

• Free publicity => better when ppl speak about you even in a positive or negative way

• Legitimate your value on the street

Formal ways to control Youth Gangs and Youth Crime

• School => educating

• Community agencies

  • provide them with resouces

Informal ways to control Youth Gangs and Youth Crime

• Everyday social interaction => focusing on preventative efforts

• Parenting efforts, community involvement

Community agencies control youth gangs through:

• Retroactive programs

  • Persuade existing gang members to leave that lifestyle

• Preventative programs

  • Teaching young children about the dangers of gangs

Juvenile Delinquents Act (1908)

• Foundation => parens patriae

• With the right assistance and teaching, young criminals can get on the right path

• child welfare principles

Young Offenders Act (1984)

• Young offenders instead of juvenile delinquents

• justice principles

Youth Criminal Justice Act (2003)

• First-time & non-violent young offenders => treated via community and alternative measures

• Chronic or violent young offenders => treated more toughly

• prevention principles, intensified rehabilitation and reintegration

Limitations of all social control on youth crime

Fails to sufficiently address youth trauma

Effects of Police Contact on Youth

• Counter effect

• Youth who interact with the criminal justice system => more likely to continue with deviant behavior

• Police contact with marginalized populations is much stricter than the white population

Why youth who interact with the criminal justice system are more likely to continue with deviant behavior?

• Internalize the label

  • Suffer the consequence of being labeled by others

  • Start acting that way => enforce negative behavior

• Deviance amplification

  • Isolated them from good kids

The school affects delinquency in 2 interrelated ways:

• Taken over many of the occupational socialization functions formerly done by the family

• Effects on children’s daily lives

Relation between delinquency and school

• Students who have good connections with the prof more likely to doing well than students who have more friends

• Strong school bonds protected them from being violent

Zero-tolerance policies that use suspensions or expulsions are

• COUNTER-PRODUCTIVE

• Instead of expelling them from school, bad kids need to be pulled back in the school

=> to strengthen the bonds

=> surrounded by emotional supportive environment

Generation Gap Perception

• 1950s => the label “teenager”

• Certainly not because of the adults, it’s because of the teenagers => inherently deviant

• Reflected in the media

  • Young people => lazy, irresponsible

Generation Gap in the Past

• Youth has an absence of self-control (especially sexual self-control), short-temper

• sturm und drang

• However, it is parents who bring the emphasis on sports to their sons’ lives and the emphasis on popularity to their daughters’ lives

sturm und drang

• Individual development mirrors the evolution of the human species

• Transition from “beast-like” to “human-like” (growing up)

Generation Gap at the Present

• Parents and other adults put so much stress on children

• Parent-child conflicts do increase during adolescence

=> as young people strive to develop their own independent identities

=> Mostly small, everyday issues

“keeping up with the Joneses”

Adults who want the same status of car, house, boat, or vacation as their neighbours or co-workers.

=> these examples are really similar to teenagers who want the same kind of clothes or shoes as their peers

Generation Gap in the Future

• Due to the busy life => Teenagers receive less direct supervision from parents

• Engaged time is more important for adolescents than for younger children

• Adolescent aloneness => potential for new and significant generation gap emerges

Street racing

• Unsanctioned & often illegal

• There are distinctive street racing subcultures in many cities across the world

Mental Disorders discussion dimensions

• Experience of the disorders (individual dimension)

• How people perceive and treat those with mental illnesses (social dimension)

The DSM

-List what thoughts, moods, behaviors => are symptoms of mental illness to diagnose what individuals experiencing

Mental disorders

• Less able to recognize what is real and what is not

• Must be of a magnitude and duration substantial enough => to interfere with daily functioning

• Not black/ white approach => sick vs not sick

Most common mental disorders

• Mood

• Anxiety Disorders

Mental disorders can be based on

• Not only individual things but also social factors & economic factor

• Not that a factor solely affect mental illness => interact with each other, or exaggerate each othe

Economic factors

• socioeconomic status

• Not only about social class but also to changes in financial status due to local, regional, national, or global economic patterns.

Gender in Mental Disorder

• Equal overall rates for women and men

• Different types of mental illness between men & women

Mental disorder in men

• antisocial personality disorder, substance abuse disorder, conduct disorder

• Many of us don’t consider severe mental disorder in men

• Most of suicides are committed by men

Mental disorder in women

• depression, anxiety (common)

• Sociocultural factors

  • more likely to suffer due to the environment around them (inequality)

• Try to commit suicide more often than men, but not succeed

Mental disorder due to Socioeconomic Status

• Number 1 predictor of mental illness

• Higher rates among lower socioeconomic status groups

• Social causation hypothesis

• Social selection hypothesis

Social causation hypothesis

• Poverty leads to mental illness

• Retreatism => give up on pursuing the goals => mental illness (Merton)

• Strain has a significant contribution to mental health (negative feelings)

• Early adulthood and old age (mood & anxiety)

Social selection hypothesis

• Mental illness leads to poverty

• Depends on the types of mental illness (severe)

Age in Mental disorder

• Transition from high school to college, have to make adults decision

• Create chaos as we try to form an identity

• Higher rates in adolescents/young adults

Indigenous youth with mental illnesses

• 90% of Indigenous suicides in only 10% of communities

• Indigenous communities that experience high rates of youth suicide

=> the least “culturally healthy”

Cost of Mental Illness (Objective view)

• Direct and indirect financial costs (healthcare & unemployment)

• Can lead to physical illnesses

• Mental illnesses carry the second-highest hospital expenditures (following injuries)

Cost of Mental Illness (Subjective view)

• Cost-of-illness estimates should be viewed with some level of caution

  • biochemistry interacts with economics and social norms

• Fail to take into account => individuals with mental disorders contribute to society outside of the labor force (parents, neighbors)

=> cost-of-illness estimates themselves are reflective of the negative attitudes that surround mental illness