Drifters and Delinquents: Commitment and Neutralization in Low- and High-Rate Offending Early Adolescents

The purpose of this study was to compare drift/neutralization and criminal lifestyle interpretations of the neutralization-delinquency nexus in 1,005 (498 boys, 506 girls) youth (mean age = 11.22 years) organized into three groups: no delinquency, low-rate delinquency, and high-rate delinquency. Findings showed that low-rate delinquent youth were as committed to conventional social relationships as nondelinquent youth and more committed to conventional relationships than high-rate delinquent youth. It was further noted that low-rate or drifting delinquents used neutralization techniques more often than nondelinquents but less often than high-rate delinquents. These results suggest that neutralization may be less a matter of relieving guilt after having violated the law than it is a way of constructing a moral value system that supports crime.

Community sanctions in youth justice compared to other youth crime responses: A meta-analysis

This meta-analysis examines the official recidivism effects of two types of community sanctions in youth justice, namely community service and behavioural intervention programmes. Two analyses were conducted: a comparison between the effects of community sanctions and custodial sanctions, versus a comparison between the effects of community sanctions and dismissals. Following a systematic literature search, data extraction and analysis, mean effect sizes were calculated utilizing (log) odds ratio as the main effect measure. To explore heterogeneity, a meta-regression was conducted with four moderator variables: methodological rigour, referral stage, main focus of sanction and sample risk level. The hypotheses were that recidivism would be significantly lower for delinquent youth subject to community sanctions compared with those subject to custodial sanctions, but that differences in recidivism between delinquent youth subject to community sanctions versus dismissals would be insignificant. In total, 23 studies were deemed eligible for inclusion ( Ncust = 7, Ndism = 16). Final results were in favour of the hypotheses, namely, significantly lower recidivism rates for community sanctions compared with custodial sanctions, and no significant differences for community sanctions compared with dismissals. For both comparisons, the 95% confidence interval indicated the effects varied from just below zero to substantially in favour of community sanctions. Finally, moderator analysis revealed that studies of lower methodological quality and mixed referral stages were more likely to report larger effect sizes.

Efficacy of Low-Intensity Cognitive Behavior Intervention for Chinese Delinquent Youth

Purpose: Recent literature has pointed out the seriously unmet treatment needs of delinquent youth with mental health problems in Hong Kong. This study pioneers to systematically develop and evaluate the effectiveness of a structured low-intensity cognitive behavioral intervention (LICBI) to concurrently address mental health issues and delinquent behaviors among Hong Kong Chinese youth. Method: A quasi-experimental controlled design was adopted with three assessments at baseline, postintervention, and 6-week follow-up. One hundred and eighty participants were recruited to the LICBI and 123 to the control group. Results: Multilevel modeling analyses showed that the LICBI might be effective in improving mental health–related factors (impulsivity, self-esteem, negative emotions, and loneliness) and delinquent behaviors. A mediation analysis suggested that LICBI might reduce participants’ delinquent behaviors through reducing their impulsivity and enhancing their self-esteem. Discussion: The results provide preliminary evidence for the effectiveness of LICBI for Chinese delinquent youth in a community social service setting.

The Global Comparative Study of Gangs and Other Non-State Armed Groups

After nearly a hundred years of debate and analysis, the gang concept remains hotly contested within the social sciences. Once thought to be an exclusively American phenomenon, the study of gangs has become increasingly global over the last decade. Countries from every world region have observed the emergence of gangs and gang-like groups. In some places, gangs resemble their American counterparts, while in others they engage not only in petty crime and drug trafficking but in targeted assassinations, corruption of public officials, and racketeering as well. These activities make them less like the delinquent youth groups they were once conceived as and more akin to organized crime. In less stable and violent contexts, gangs have even been incorporated into ethnic militias, rebel groups, and paramilitaries or have taken on a more vigilante ethos by combating violence and providing some semblance of order. The remarkable proliferation of the gang form and the incredible variation in the phenomenon across the globe requires a reassessment of the gang concept. In the limited literature that focuses on the study of gangs cross-nationally, several conceptualizations have been proposed. Some scholars have attempted to separate smaller street gangs from a variety of other related phenomena: prison gangs, drug gangs, and organized crime. They have done so by crafting a more restrictive concept. However, while separating street gangs from other criminal groups may make sense in the American or European context, it applies less well to other parts of the globe where such organizational forms have become thoroughly integrated, thus blurring these traditional conceptual boundaries. At the same time, some scholars have advocated for a conceptual framework that captures the transformative nature of gangs and encompasses any and all types of gangs and gang-like groups. Such an evolutionary framework fails, however, to distinguish between gangs and a huge variety of criminal and political nonstate armed groups that share little in terms of their origins, motivations, or activities. It can be argued that the best conceptualization is a minimal one that incorporates gangs and many gang-like groups but avoids conceptual stretching to include virtually all nonstate armed groups. Ultimately, contemporary scholars of gangs within any national context must be increasingly attentive to the global dimensions of the gang organizational form and the various overlapping and multifaceted relationships they maintain with a variety of other nonstate armed groups.

Halbstarke and Rowdys: Consumerism, Youth Rebellion, and Gender in the Postwar Cinema of the Two Germanys

ABSTRACTIn the second half of the 1950s, American films about “delinquent youth” took West Germany by storm. Although these films were not screened in East Germany, the still open border between the FRG and GDR allowed young people in both states to see these films. Many adopted American clothing styles and music in both Germanys. Two films, the West German production Die Halbstarken (1956) and the East German production Berlin–Ecke Schönhauser (1957) addressed “delinquent youth” in the German context and became quite popular. The article compares the competing images of femininity in both films, which linked the problem of “delinquent youth” to consumerism, pop culture, and “weak parents,” but portrayed young women very differently. While consumerism in the West German film was in a gender-specific way linked to femininity, the East German film linked consumerism to a class society and displaced it to the West. Contemporary film reviews and press treatment of main actresses reflected these differing attitudes toward gender and consumption.