A Global Perspective On Young People As Offenders And Victims

This Brief presents the first major release of findings from the Third International Self-Report Delinquency Study (ISRD3). ISRD is a major international research collaboration that now covers some 35 countries. It surveys young people aged 12 to 16 in their schools, asking about their experience of crime – both as offenders and as victims – and about their attitudes to crime and justice and about their home and school life. ISRD1 was carried out in 1991-1992 and ISRD2 in 2006-2008. ISRD findings presented here cover the 27 ISRD3 countries for which data are already available, with a total sample approaching 63,000 young people. For most of these countries, the samples are drawn from two major cities. This volume provides key findings on self-reported offending and on victimization.Chapter 1 set the scene, and describes the background to ISRD3. Chapter 2describes the methods used in the survey; respondents complete the ISRD questionnaire either in paper format or – increasingly – using a standardized internet program. Chapter 3 covers key findings on self-reported offending, including the important finding that preparedness to disclose offending varies according to cultural context. Chapter 4 presents findings on victimization, including important new findings on hate crime and the use of parental violence, as well as coverage of more conventional forms of crime. A final chapter summarizes the results and draws out their implications. This Brief will be of interest to researchers in criminology and criminal justice,as well as related fields such as sociology, public policy, and psychology. Due tothe groundbreaking methodological analyses provided, this Brief is essential reading to all who conduct or use internationally comparative and global survey research.

The complexities and tragedies arising from teen violence are problems faced on every continent in the world. Fourteen case studies of carefully selected countries, representative of every region of the world, are presented in this absorbing volume that is the first to examine the causes and possible solutions for the problem of teen violence around the world. Students and teachers can make cross-cultural comparisons to discover how the problem is viewed in different countries, how the problem is changing, which factors seem to contribute to the rate of teen violence in almost all of the countries and which are unique to specific countries. Readers can also take a fascinating look at the various solutions to the problem that have been proposed and tested throughout the world. Each chapter is divided into similar subsections, so students can easily compare specific topics among different countries and cultures. They will find that the perception of teen violence in different countries does not always reflect the reality. They can discover how such factors as drug use, family dynamics,and educational settings play an important role in teen violence across many different cultures, while also discovering the unique settings and situations that contribute to violence in unfamiliar cultures. This world view will help build better understanding of how social issues affect all societies.

Children who come into conflict with the law are more likely to have experienced violence or adversity than their non-offending peers. Exacerbating the deleterious effects of this childhood trauma, children’s contact with the criminal justice system poses undue risks of physical, sexual, and psychological violence. This book examines the specific forms of violence that children experience through their contact with the criminal justice system. Comprising contributions from leading scholars and practitioners in children’s rights and youth justice, this book profiles evidence-based prevention strategies and case studies from around the world. It illustrates the diversity of contexts in which various forms of violence against children unfold and advances knowledge about both the nature and extent of violence against children in criminal justice settings, and the specific situational factors that contribute to, or inhibit, the successful implementation of violence prevention strategies. It demonstrates that specialised child justice systems, in which children’s rights are upheld, are crucial in preventing the violence inherent to conventional criminal justice regimes. Written in a clear and accessible style, this book will be of interest to students and researchers engaged in studies of criminology and criminal justice, youth justice, victimology, crime prevention, and children’s rights.

Among developed nations, the United States has one of the most extreme and harsh criminal justice systems in the world—there is overwhelmingly more violence, more punishment, and more incarceration for both adults and juveniles here. But while American scholars may have extensive knowledge about other justice systems around the world and how adults are treated, juvenile justice systems and the plight of youth who break the law throughout the world is less often studied. This important volume fills a large gap in the study of juvenile justice by providing an unprecedented comparison of criminal justice and juvenile justice systems across the world, looking for points of comparison and policy variance that can lead to positive change in the United States.Edited by three distinguished scholars on this topic, Juvenile Justice in Global Perspective contains original contributions from some of the world's leading voices. The contributors cover countries from Western Europe to rising powers like China, India, and countries in Latin America. The book discusses important issues such as the relationship between political change and juvenile justice, the common labels used to unify juvenile systems in different regions and in different forms of government, the types of juvenile systems that exist and how they differ, and the impact of national characteristic differences on outcomes of treatment. Furthermore, the book uses its data on criminal versus juvenile justice in a wide variety of nations to create a new explanation of why separate juvenile and criminal courts are felt to be necessary. Offering a unique, proactive and comprehensive approach to juvenile justice,Juvenile Justice in Global Perspective is an important resource for scholars, prosecutors, lawmakers, and judges who hope to shape a better future for youth involved with the criminal justice system.

This work compiles experiences and lessons learned in meeting the unique needs of women and children regarding crime prevention and criminal justice, in particular the treatment and social reintegration of offenders and serves as a cross-disciplinary work for academic and policy-making analyses and follow-up in developing and developed countries. Furthermore, it argues for a more humane and effective approach to countering delinquency and crime among future generations. In a world where development positively depends on the rule of law and the related investment security, two global trends may chart the course of development: urbanization and education. Urbanization will globalize the concepts of “justice” and “fairness”; education will be dominated by the urban mindset and digital service economy, just as a culture of lawfulness will. This work looks at crime prevention education as an investment in the sustainable quality of life of succeeding generations, and at those who pursue such crime prevention as the providers of much-needed skills in the educational portfolio. Adopting a reformist approach, this work collects articles with findings and recommendations that may be relevant to domestic and international policymaking, including the United Nations Studies and their educational value for the welfare of coming generations. The books address the relevant United Nations ideas by combining them with academic approaches. Guided by the Editors’ respective fields of expertise, and in full recognition of academic freedom and “organized scepticism”, it includes contributions by lawyers, criminologists, sociologists and other eminent experts seeking to bridge the gap between academic and policy perspectives, as appropriate, against the international background, including the United Nations developments.​ The second volume opens with Part IV, which presents articles on different kinds of crime prevention. The effectiveness of punishment and, in particular, imprisonment is examined by contrasting it with alternative sanctions and the following questions are raised: Does harsh punishment have a crime preventive effect? What are the side effects of imprisonment on the offenders and their families? Are alternatives, such as restorative justice or mediation, more effective and cheaper? Part V outlines proactive strategies of crime prevention, e.g. for potential sex offenders or in the domain of internet crime. Part VI envisions a more peaceful and inclusive society, which would be realized by improving the protection of women and children in their everyday life, and easing the reintegration of those who have become offenders. The importance of the role played by the UN in formulating these goals is underlined. The volume concludes with an epilogue of the 70th President of the United Nations Economic and Social Council, Martin Sajdik, and a post scriptum of the editors. p>

Rates of female delinquency, especially for violent crimes, are increasing in most common law countries. At the same time the growth in cyber-bullying, especially among girls, appears to be a related global phenomenon.While the gender gap in delinquency is narrowing in Australia, United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, boys continue to dominate the youth who commit crime and have a virtual monopoly over sexually violent crimes. Indigenous youth continue to be vastly over-represented in the juvenile justice system in every Australian jurisdiction. The Indigenisation of delinquency is a persistent problem in other countries such as Canada and New Zealand.Young people who gather in public places are susceptible to being perceived as somehow threatening or riotous, attracting more than their share of public order policing. Professional football has been marred by repeated scandals involving sexual assault, violence and drunkenness. Given the cultural significance of footballers as role models to thousands, if not millions, of young men around the world, it is vitally important to address this problem. Offending Youth explores these key contemporary patterns of delinquency, the response to these by the juvenile justice agencies and moreover what can be done to address these problems.The book also analyses the major policy and legislative changes from the nineteenth to twenty first centuries, chiefly the shift the penal welfarism to diversion and restorative justice. Using original cases studied by Carrington twenty years ago, Offending Youth illustrates how penal welfarism criminalised young people from socially marginal backgrounds, especially Aboriginal children, children from single parent families, family-less children, state wards and young people living in poverty or in housing commission estates. A number of inquiries in Australia and the United Kingdom have since established that children committed to these institutions, supposedly for their own good, experienced systemic physical, sexual and psychological abuse during their institutionalisation. The book is dedicated to the survivors of these institutions who only now are receiving official recognition of the injustices they suffered.The underlying philosophy of juvenile justice has fundamentally shifted away from penal welfarism to embrace positive policy responses to juvenile crime, such as youth conferencing, cautions, warnings, restorative justice, circle sentencing and diversion examined in the concluding chapter.Offending Youth is aimed at a broad readership including policy makers, juvenile justice professionals, youth workers, families, teachers, politicians as well as students and academics in criminology, policing, gender studies, masculinity studies, Indigenous studies, justice studies, youth studies and the sociology of youth and deviance more generally.

This work compiles experiences and lessons learned in meeting the unique needs of women and children regarding crime prevention and criminal justice, in particular the treatment and social reintegration of offenders, and serves a as a cross-disciplinary work for academic and policy-making analyses and follow-up in developing and developed countries. Furthermore, it argues for a more humane and effective approach to countering delinquency and crime among future generations. In a world where development positively depends on the rule of law and the related investment security, two global trends may chart the course of development: urbanization and education. Urbanization will globalize the concepts of “justice” and “fairness”; education will be dominated by the urban mindset and digital service economy, just as a culture of lawfulness will. This work looks at crime prevention education as an investment in the sustainable quality of life of succeeding generations, and at those who pursue such crime prevention as the providers of much-needed skills in the educational portfolio. Adopting a reformist approach, this work collects articles with findings and recommendations that may be relevant to domestic and international policymaking, including the United Nations Studies and their educational value for the welfare of coming generations. The books address the relevant United Nations ideas by combining them with academic approaches. Guided by the Editors’ respective fields of expertise, and in full recognition of academic freedom and “organized scepticism”, it includes contributions by lawyers, criminologists, sociologists and other eminent experts seeking to bridge the gap between academic and policy perspectives, as appropriate, against the international background, including the United Nations developments.​ The first volume opens with a foreword by Marta Santos Pais, the United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children, and a general introduction by the editors. Part I provides an overview of United Nations principles for crime prevention and the treatment of women and children. Part II concentrates on education and the social learning of children and adolescents. The importance of quality education is stressed as is its impact on the behaviour of children of all ages. It also includes a discussion of the factors that still hinder access to good schooling in many parts of the world. Part III presents international research findings on children, juveniles and women both as victims and offenders. Statistics show overwhelmingly that these groups are more often victims than offenders.

This book examines the processes for social integration and social cohesion among young people, drawing on data collected from the International Self-Report Delinquency (ISRD) study, which covered 35 studies.This report examines case studies from 5 selected countries (France, Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States) to provide an in-depth comparative study. Social integration processes are defined by sociologists as the mechanisms through which a society is held together, and populations are transformed into collectivities and communities. They are understood by criminologists to be an important factor in crime prevention, and factors such as peer groups and families are strong determinants of criminal behavior. In a time when society, and particularly young people, can seem increasingly fragmented (due to new technologies, rapidly increasing migration, economic inequality, and increased individuation), the researchers in this volume seek to understand whether and how these phenomena affect young people, and how they may have an impact on the development of criminal and antisocial behavior. This work will provide a framework for researchers in criminology and criminal justice, particularly with an interest in juveniles, developmental criminology, and crime prevention, as well as related fields such as sociology, social work, and demography.