The relevance of this research is connected with the necessity of developing the theory of delinquent behavior and of improving the prevention of juvenile delinquency. The analysis of clauses that form the foundation of delinquency prevention programs shows the dominance of personal, behavioral and social environment-related views and a poor development of subjective views that modify the understanding of social consequences of crimes by adolescents. The goal of this research was to study the ideas of adolescents regarding social space and their impact on their assessment of crimes and their consequences.
The study was based on the principles and clauses of a subjective approach, and the social-cognitive theory. The information processing methods included the frequency content-analysis (text-meaning), the assessment of differences (H-test of Kruskal-Wallis), and the multi-factor, multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA).
The authors established that juvenile delinquents’ understanding of interactions in the social space has an influence on their description of crimes. They also determined the statistical differences in the understanding of interaction with the social space between law-abiding adolescents and juvenile delinquents. It was shown that juvenile delinquents believe that social space ignores and devalues them, while law abiding adolescents believe that it is sensitive and supportive. Juvenile delinquents consider it possible to be irresponsible and dishonest in their interactions with other people, while law abiding adolescents strive to be responsible, honest and fair. The authors found out that the assessment of relationships with the social environment has an impact on the description of the consequences of a crime in a group of juvenile delinquents. The obtained results specify the ideas on the subjectivity of juvenile delinquents, prove that the subjective world view determines how the crime itself and its consequences are perceived, provide additional evidence that underage crimes are determined by the disruption of the relationship with the social environment, and show that the consequences of crimes are described using the vocabulary of risks and opportunities, consequences and advantages, break-up with the close ones and isolation.
On the Complex Emotion: Be Physiological, Cognitive or Situated?
