DELINQUENCY AND DELINQUENTS - SOME REFERENCE POINTS OF CURRENT RESEARCH IN THE FIELD OF JUVENILE DELINQUENCY

• NCJ Number: 48932
• Journal: Annales Internationales de Criminologie Volume: 15 Issue: 2 Dated: (1976) Pages: 173-194
• Author(s): J SELOSSE
• Date Published: 1976
• Length: 22 pages
• Corporate Author: Societe Internationale de Criminologie
• Publication Format: Article
• Language: French
• Country: France

Annotation

THE INCREASES IN JUVENILE DELINQUENCY, COUPLED BY CHANGES IN SOCIAL AND CULTURAL VALUES, HAVE AFFECTED THEORIES REGARDING JUVENILE DELINQUENCY, ITS CAUSES AND TREATMENT. SOME OF THOSE THEORIES ARE REVIEWED.

Abstract

WHERAS FORMER STUDIES OF JUVENILE DELINQUENCY FOCUSED ON BEHAVIOR AND PERSONALITY TYPOLOGIES, CURRENT RESEARCH IS DIRECTED TOWARD INTERRACTIONISM AND SOCIAL REACTION THEORY, WITH ANALYSIS OF JUVENILES' SOCIAL MILIEU AS CRIMINOGENIC. ATTENTION HAS BEEN DRAWN TO JUVENILES' PERSONALITIES AS DYNAMIC, STILL IN THE PROCESS OF BEING FORMED, AND GLOBALLY AFFECTED BY FAMILY, PEERS, SOCIETY, AND SELF. JUVENILES FROM POORER SOCIOECONOMIC BACKGROUNDS, FOR INSTANCE, ARE MORE LIKELY TO BE INSTITUTIONALIZED FOR DELINQUENCY THAN MORE AFFLUENT JUVENILES. FURTHERMORE, SOCIAL REACTION TO CERTAIN TYPES OF CRIME, PERPETRATED BY CERTAIN TYPES OF JUVENILES, APPEARS TO AFFECT THE AMOUNT OF POLICE AND JUDICIAL INTERVENTION IN THE ARREST STUDIES DEVOTED TO THE SOCIAL REPRESENTATION OF JUSTICE, TO THE ESTIMATION OF CRIME SERIOUSNESS, AND TO THE DIVERSITY OF SOCIAL REACTIONS EXPRESSED BY DIFFERENT SOCIAL ACTORS HAVE BECOME MORE NUMEROUS. FOR EXAMPLE, THROUGH STUDIES ON RECIDIVISM RATES FOR DISADVANTAGED JUVENILES, RECOMMENDATIONS HAVE BEEN MADE FOR PREVENTIVE MEASURES SUCH AS SUPPLYING ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL SUPPORT FOR DELINQUENTS. CONTEMPORARY RESEARCH IS EXTENDING BEYOND THE ANALYTIC-DEDUCTIVE APPROACH TO A MORE DIALECTICAL PERSPECTIVE OF SOCIAL AND INDIVIDUAL DEVELOPMENT. THE THEORY OF REEDUCATION HAS EMERGED, DIRECTED TOWARD THE SOCIAL REINTEGRATION OF JUVENILES, BY GIVING THEM RESPONSIBILITY AND TEACHING THEM TO ASSUME ACCOUNTABILITY FOR THEIR ACTIONS. MORE ATTENTION TO THE COMPLEX LEVELS OF INTERRACTION BETWEEN THE JUVENILE DELINQUENT, THE SOCIAL CONTEXT AND SOCIAL REACTIONS TO DIFFERENT CRIMES, AND OPTIMAL METHODS OF TREATMENT BY WHICH TO PREVENT CRIMES AND RECIDIVISM HAVE LED TO A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF JUVENILE DELINQUENCY. REFERENCES, FOOTNOTES, AND TABULAR DATA ARE PROVIDED. --IN FRENCH. (MHP)