Family, Young People and Crime: Locations, Causes and Solutions

1
Family, Young People and CrimeLocations, Causes
and Solutions
Philip Larkin - This Be The Verse They f you
up, your mum and dad. They may not mean to, but
they do. They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you. But they were
fed up in their turn By fools in old-style
hats and coats, Who half the time were
soppy-stern And half at one another's
throats. Man hands on misery to man. It
deepens like a coastal shelf. Get out as early as
you can, And don't have any kids yourself.

• Troubles of Youth
• 11th Feb 2008

2
Lecture Outline

• The Family patterns, problems, ideologies and
  theories
• The Family
• as the cause of crime
• as a site of crime
• as a solution to crime

3
What is the Family?
Sexuality
Poverty
The Family

• The locus of the range of sociological influences
• is the family simply a short-hand for society,
  or is it an influence in its own right?

4
Theories of the family

• Functionalist Theories
• nuclear family functional adaptation to the
  requirements of industrial society
• Socialisation of children
• Emotional and physical support for the (male)
  breadwinner
• Marxist Theories
• Reproduction of the workforce, on a daily and
  generational basis
• Individual identity lost in the harsh world of
  work
• New family became a real sphere of personal
  freedom and independence (Zaretsky)

5
Feminist theories of the family

• The family is a key institution in maintaining
  patriarchy
• Womens housework vital to the economy, but
  unpaid
• Men given control over womens sexuality and
  fertility
• Reinforces separate gender identities
• Key institution socialising gender roles
• Separation of public and private spheres

6
Family life in decline?
All marriages
First marriages
Divorces
Remarriages
7
Average age at first marriage and divorce Source
ONS
First marriage First marriage Divorce Divorce
Males Females Males Females
1971 24.6 22.6 39.4 36.8
1981 25.4 23.1 37.7 35.2
1991 27.5 25.5 38.6 36.0
2001 30.6 28.4 41.5 39.1
8
Increasing single parenthood
Percentage of children brought up in different
family types (Source Social Trends 2007)
9
Political approaches to the family

• Conservative
• The nations spiritual leaders should
  unashamedly extol the virtues of normal family
  life
• Nuclear families form the bedrock of society
• Other forms are deviant, unstable and unworkable
• Labour
• Largely in agreement, but some recognition of
  diversity of family types, and the need for
  policy to respond to social change

10
Current Crime / Family Ideologies (see Mooney on
Wiki)

• A central aspect of the Respect agenda
• the family seen as a moral agent
• poor parenting / family breakdown
• ignores the social and economic context that
  gives rise to these
• Solution strengthen the institution
• Relies on a certain social construction of the
  family

11
The family as a cause of crime

• Familial causes of crime
• Genetic explanations
• Differential Association
• Family as a criminal structure

12
Dysfunctional families as a cause of crime

• Families without Fatherhood
• George Erdos / Norman Dennis
• The lack of an appropriate male role model is
  resulting in a weakening of moral consensus and a
  resultant rise in crime
• Associated with Individualistic Underclass
  theories (eg. Charles Murray)

13
National Survey of Health and Development

• Factors associated with delinquency (Wadsworth,
  1979)
• Parents social status
• Family size
• Childs birth order
• Parents split up lt5

Predicted as delinquent Predicted as non-delinquent
Actually delinquent 136 50
Actually non-delinquent 711 915
14
Ruby and Farrington (2001)

• Comparison of delinquency rates between
• permanently disrupted families
• intact families
• Also considered conflict within families
• Disrupted families, and intact high conflict
  families showed similar delinquency rates
• Loss of mothers seemed to have a greater
  influence than loss of fathers
• Disrupted families, where child stays with mother
  show similar patterns to intact families

15
Family as a site of crime

• Hidden crime the domestic sphere as protecting
  the offender
• Contrasts with the ideology of the family as
  nurturing, safe haven in a heartless world
• Separation of public and private spheres has kept
  violence in the family hidden
• Feminist campaigning has brought private sphere
  into arena of public debate

16
The family as a solution to crime?

• Families placed as central to the maintenance of
  secure communities
• Dysfunctional families seen as a major problem
  (ignores wider social causes)
• Benefits withdrawn from parents
• Parenting Orders / fines
• Parenting contracts

17
Family Placement

• Support Care remain predominantly in own family
  settings
• Remand Fostering for young people refused bail
  and remanded to local authority care
• Intensive Fostering an alternative to custody
  where living circs contributed to offence
• Avoids problems associated with custodial
  settings
• Strong links to supportive adults pro-social
  approach in the real world
• Young peoples agency still prioritised

18
Parenting Contracts

• CDA 1998 / CJA 2003 / Anti-social behaviour Act
  2003
• Available if a child has
• convicted of a criminal offence
• received an ASBO, referral order child safety
  order
• or, parents are convicted of failing to assure
  school attendance, or YOP
• 2003 -gt freestanding parental orders
• Failure to comply fine up to 1000 and/or
  community penalty

19
Parenting Contract

• Agreement as to the work/support to be carried
  out
• addressing conflict and challenging behaviour,
  both of young people and within the family
• supervision and monitoring of young people
• A range of therapeutic, group work, advisors and
  mentoring schemes

20
Positive Parenting (on Wiki)

• Evaluation of 34 parenting projects
• Effectiveness
• improved communication, monitoring and
  supervision
• Reduction in Conflict
• Parents feeling empowered to influence
  childrens behaviour, and perform parenting in
  general

21
Criticisms of Parenting Orders

• Fails to address structural inequality, and
  places the blame on the family / parents
• Support not available at the first signs of
  problems only really targeting young people who
  have offended
• Criminalises parents
• assumes parental control often not the case
• parental punishments for their childrens actions
• punishes parents, but NOT the State when
  responsible for young peoples care