Data on Primary Victimization Related to the General Group Premise of Subcultural Theories of Deviancy and Juvenile Delinquency

• NCJ Number: 79525
• Journal: Humanitas Volume: 4 Issue: 3 Dated: (1978) Pages: 277-282
• Author(s): W J Schurink
• Date Published: 1978
• Length: 6 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: South Africa
• Note: This article is a synopsis of two short reports published by the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC).

Annotation

In view of the increasing confusion about the general group premise of subcultural theories (that deviancy and juvenile delinquency generally occur in a group context), this article attempts to test this premise with data produced by two self-report victimization studies in South Africa.

Abstract

The first survey was undertaken in February and March 1975 in Soweto, the largest urban residential complex of blacks in South Africa. The second survey was conducted in September and October of the same year among 'coloureds' (people of mixed racial origins) in the Cape Peninsula. Interviews were conducted by trained field workers under the supervision of professionals. Only categories of primary victimization (both face-to-face and not-face-to-face) were included. A total of 1,528 residences in Soweto and 1,534 homes in the Cape Peninsula were visited. A total of 432 respondents, 10 years of age and older, who had been victims of at least 1 form of primary victimization in the 12 months preceding the investigation were traced by the interviewers in Soweto. In the Cape Peninsula area, 527 respondents reported that they had been victimized under the same circumstances. A schedule was completed for each of the respondents who indicated that they had been victimized. The schedule included the crimes perpetrated on victims, as well as the number of offenders responsible for the most recent crime. The data indicate that more than two-thirds of all respondents in Soweto and more than three-quarters of all respondents in the Cape Peninsula had been victimized by two or more offenders. Data also show that the number of offenders vary according to the type of crime committed against the respondents, with robbery, serious assault, and theft being committed to a larger extent by more than one person than were common assault and rape. The paper concludes that the general group premise of subcultural theories of deviancy and juvenile delinquency appears to be valid, although certain methodological problems of self-report victimization studies should be taken into account. A table and 95 references are provided.