Why Street Youth Become Involved in Crime

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Why Street Youth Become Involved in Crime

• Stephen W. Baron
• Queens University

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BACKGROUND FACTORS
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Physical Abuse

• Particularly strong association with violent
  offending

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• Parents who abuse their children create strain by
  seriously threatening many of the childs goals,
  values, needs, activities, and/or identities.
  Given cultural expectations and the experiences
  of other children, this type of behavior is
  likely to be seen as unjust.

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• Children who are abused adopt aggressive
  interpersonal strategies or techniques as a means
  of problem solving. These ideas about using
  coercion to solve problems can evolve into
  definitions favorable to violence encouraging
  more violence.

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• Further, abusive experiences may diminish victims
  ability to cope with stress and can inhibit their
  development of empathy for others.

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• These experiences also can influence youths to
  seek out violent situations including joining
  peers who approve of, encourage, or require
  violence while providing a sense of belonging.

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• Fleisher (1995) argues that abuse and rejection
  leads street youths to develop a defensive world
  view. Predicated on fear, this world view is a
  way of perceiving, interpreting and explaining
  social situations and processes.

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• A defensive world view contains a number of
  traits including feelings of vulnerability and
  the need to protect oneself. It also leads to
  the belief that no one can be trusted, that no
  one will provide aid, and a willingness to use
  violence and intimidation. In short, he argues,
  the defensive world view provides abused youths
  with survival skills.

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Other Forms of Abuse

• We tend to find that the effect of various other
  forms of abuse on the types of crime that we are
  examining today are indirect. By this I mean that
  abuse tends to lead to other factors in the
  foreground (being homeless for example, which
  tend to have a stronger direct effect on crime)

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• When there is a direct relationship between the
  other forms of abuse and crime it appears to be
  made stronger or weaker depending on what are
  referred to as conditioning effects.

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EMOTIONAL ABUSE

• Those who have suffered Emotional Abuse for
  example but who somehow have been able to keep
  their Self-Esteem are more likely to be involved
  in a range of property and violent offenses

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• Some researchers note that emotionally abused
  children can become hostile and aggressive and
  can generalize these feelings into perceptions of
  the world as a hostile environment.

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• The harsh use of punishment (e.g.
  humiliation/insults, threats, screaming and /or
  physical punishments) is likely to be seen as a
  high magnitude form of strain that leads to very
  low social control undermines attachments and
  commitments to conventional others and
  institutions and creates some pressure or
  incentive to engage in crime to reduce the
  strain.

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SEXUAL ABUSE

• Histories of Sexually Abuse and having attitudes
  more supportive of breaking the law are
  associated with total offending, property
  offending and violent crime.
• Further, those who have been Sexually Abused and
  have more peers who engage in crime are more
  likely to be involved in violent offenses.

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• There is evidence that sexual abuse can lead to
  feelings of betrayal causing hostility and anger.
  Further, the powerlessness associated with the
  abuse can impair judgments and decrease coping
  skills at the same time as increasing
  insecurities, anxieties, and the desire to
  protect oneself.

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• The shame, guilt, and stigmatization victims
  experience leaves them at greater risk for
  association with stigmatized others including
  deviant peers who, together with the sense of
  powerlessness and betrayal, can influence
  criminal conduct.

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ABUSE WILL ALSO HAVE AN INDIRECT EFFECT THROUGH
OTHER VARIABLES

• Leads to taking to the street
• Leads to the development of values supportive of
  criminal behaviour
• Leads to the association with others who are
  engaging crime

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PRIOR CRIME

• Previous offending is seen as a resource that can
  be tapped on the street in order to help survive.
  

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ECONOMIC FACTORS
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HOMELESSNESS

• As the length of homeless increases so does the
  participation in crime

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• Living on the street probably serves to detach
  street youths from conventional society. As they
  become absorbed into this environment, contact
  with, and attachment to, conventional society is
  decreased, leaving the youths at even greater
  risk for involvement in criminal activities

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• The street also provides opportunities for
  criminal behaviour. Youths lacking shelter may
  wander commercial and residential areas at all
  possible hours increasing the likelihood that
  they will intersect with attractive targets
  lacking guardianship.

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• The street also provides access to criminal peers
  who provide pressure for, and support in,
  carrying out criminal activities. It is likely
  that as time progresses, street youth restrict
  their interactions to others who spend their time
  predominantly on the street, peers who are
  seriously criminally inclined and who support and
  probably facilitate criminal successes. These
  friendship networks coalesce amongst youths with
  similar life situations who may be caught up in
  and supporting the "street lifestyle."

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The Effects of Homelessness are Muted or Expanded
by Number of Factors.
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• Homelessness has a greater impact when one
  possess attitudes that it is ok to break the law,
  and when one has higher levels of self-efficacy
• Homelessness may also lead to crime, when one has
  less self-esteem.

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• The subjective interpretation of ones poverty
  also appears to be important in understanding the
  impact of homelessness on crime. So for many
  youth it is not simply the fact of being
  homeless.

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• When one compares oneself to others and is
  dissatisfied with their lifes situation, or
  feels relatively deprived, then homelessness has
  a stronger link to crime.
• Similarly, when one feels monetarily
  dissatisfied, then one is more likely to break
  the law as the length of homelessness increases.

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OTHER OBJECTIVE ECONMIC FACTORS

• Hunger
• Lack of shelter
• Street Adversity (combination of above)
• Lack of income
• are also linked to certain offenses.

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State Support

• Favourably, State assistance has been found to
  reduce the participation in property crime,
  violent crime, and drug dealing. Although
  Coercion (e.g. unfavourable experiences on state
  assistance threatened or actual removal) may
  increase violent crime.

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UNEMPLOYMENT

• Find the role of unemployment and crime is
  somewhat complex. Only a few studies have found a
  direct relationship with unemployment and crime.
  The longer the period of unemployment the greater
  the criminal activity. But may only be a
  sub-population of the unemployed

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• Unemployment reduces people's bonds to
  conventional societal institutions. It is argued
  that the absence of employment delegitimizes
  commitment. The unemployed individual has fewer
  stakes in conformity to be jeopardized by
  criminal conduct. Not having much to lose, they
  can become strong candidates for criminal
  activity when they experience unacceptable
  unemployment or unemployability.

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• Unemployment also affects individuals' beliefs in
  the legitimacy of conformity to conventional
  rules or norms. This leaves actors free to
  deviate because they do not believe that all law
  breaking is intrinsically wrong.

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• In sum, with the relevance of work negated and
  the belief that lawbreaking is wrong weakened,
  unemployment can produce more individuals who
  have a motive to deviate.

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The impact of unemployment tends to be
strengthened when other conditions are also
present.

• When blame for unemployment is placed externally.
  
• When the person holds attitudes favourable to
  breaking the law

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Impact of unemployment on crime is also greater
when

• The youth dismisses the dominant meritocratic
  ideology
• When the youth is monetarily dissatisfied
• When the youth has quit looking for work (drugs
  sales)

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If unemployed for longer periods of time and see
this as an unjust outcome crime is more likely
when

• One holds values supportive of crime
• Associate with others who engage in crime
• Who place blame for their situation externally

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EMPLOYMENT HISTORIES

• Those actively engaging in job searches are less
  likely to commit crime
• Those with greater work ethics are at greater
  risk of violent offending.

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• Those with greater of jobs more likely to sell
  drugs.
• However, those with fewer jobs x who reject the
  meritocratic ideology more drug dealing
• While those with a greater of jobs who are
  angry more drug dealing

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SUBJECTIVE INTERPRETATIONS OF ECONOMIC CONDITIONS
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MONETARY DISSATISFACTION

• More dissatisfaction more crime
• AGAIN THIS HAS A GREATER IMPACT WHEN IN TANDEM
  WITH OTHER FACTORS

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Impact of Monetary Dissatisfaction is Greater

• When it occurs with unemployment
• When it occurs along with longer periods of
  homelessness
• When youth have criminal peers
• When youth hold values supportive of engaging in
  crime

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• Also predictive is having High Monetary Goals and
  Low Monetary Expectations

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RELATIVE DEPRIVATION

• Scholars argue that crime will be more likely
  when individuals believe that they are worse off
  monetarily than others with whom they compare
  themselves. It is not just the result of the
  failure to achieve, but also a function of the
  achievements of those in an individuals
  comparative reference group(s). Relative
  deprivation is thought to generate feelings of
  resentment and hostility

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Impact of Relative Deprivation is greater when
other conditions present

• When one has peers who also engage in crime
• The longer one is homeless
• When blame is laid externally for ones
  situation.

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STREET FACTORS
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PEERS WHO ENGAGE IN CRIME

• Youth on the street gravitate towards one
  another, develop new frames of reference under
  which status is attained and alternative routes
  to financial success

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• Sensing failure and contempt, they together
  attempt to develop new norms, new standards and
  criteria for success that are more readily
  achieved.

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• Their new cultural form resolves their problems
  more effectively than any solutions offered by
  institutional means and provides an environment
  where the dominant meritocratic ideology can be
  rejected.

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• The group offers illegal means for attaining
  financial success and status. The group can
  support and encourage the commission of property
  crime, drug distribution and violence. Peers can
  offer skills, tutelage in crime, and
  opportunities for crime.
• Adversity associated with the tendency to offer
  help to engage in, and accept help from peers to
  engage in crime

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HAVING ATTITUDES SUPPORTIVE OF CRIMINAL BEHAVIOUR
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• Anger associated with poverty linked to the
  development of attitudes supportive of crime
  particularly violent crime.
• Arousal stemming from the stress and strain of
  living under adverse economic conditions expands
  aggressive regulative rules.

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• Living under adverse socioeconomic conditions
  where youths are socially isolated. Social
  isolation creates a situation where rules
  supporting crime may be transmitted
  interpersonally within primary groups

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• Homeless and other rejected youths tend to band
  together on the street, leaving them shielded
  from positive interactions outside of their
  immediate social sphere
• Acquired through vicarious learning observe
  others

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• Street youths are more likely to engage in crime
  when they have been rewarded by peers for past
  behavior and expect future rewards for the
  behavior
• Being the victim of crime can increase adoption
  of values supportive of violence

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• In sum, the street provides an avenue in which
  subcultural rules favouring crime are learned and
  reinforced.

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VICTIMIZATION

• Property Victimization
• Violent Victimization
• Robbery Victimization

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DRUG AND ALCOHOL USE

• Some researchers argue that the critical factor
  in the move from trivial to serious crime on the
  street is drug and alcohol use.
• Survey and ethnographic studies alike show that
  persistent offenders spend much of their criminal
  gains on alcohol and drugs

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• Often proceeds of these offenders' crimes are
  used for "personal, nonessential consumption
  (e.g. nights out)," and "enjoying good times"
  rather than basic needs. This lifestyle is often
  enjoyed in the company of others who share the
  consumption of drugs and/or alcohol in bars, on
  street corners and in other locations.

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• Crime and substance use provides people on the
  street with an identity, or a role they can
  fulfil, is an activity and expected behaviour
  they can enjoy, and presents the opportunity for
  social status among their peers. In this
  lifestyle, the relationship between substance
  abuse and crime is a "most" general one. Both are
  required to participate in the subculture and
  reap its rewards and satisfactions. Success in
  the subculture is defined by substance using and
  criminal activity.

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• It is the commitment to this lifestyle more than
  addiction that is important in explaining either
  drug use or crime within this population. Within
  this lifestyle crime is more than simply a method
  of getting substances. Crime finances and
  facilitates use, and use encourages more profit
  making crimes to support an ever growing pattern
  of use.

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SOCIAL-PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS

• ANGER
• Poor parenting, being in an adversive environment
  for long periods of time leaves one angry at any
  point. Constant exposure to coercion, child
  abuse, victimization, homelessness, prison,
  welfare, all increase the likelihood of
  developing trait anger

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• LOW SELF-CONTROL
• Includes impulsiveness, low time horizons,
  risk-taking, low empathy
• Causes similar to those outlined for anger

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• CONTROL BALANCE SURPLUSES AND CONTROL BALANCE
  DEFICITS

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• COERCIVE IDEATION
• The world is a coercive place that can only be
  overcome through coercion.
• Constant exposure to coercion, child abuse,
  victimization, homelessness, prison, welfare

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PERCEPTIONS AND EFFECTS OF PUNISHMENT

• PERCEPTIONS OF CERTAINTY
• PERCEPTIONS OF SEVERITY

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• CHARGES WHILE ON THE STREET IF HAVE A HISTORY OF
  PHYSICAL OR SEXUAL ABUSE
• There is also evidence that being incarcerated
  along with the experiences of being homeless,
  experiencing violent victimization on the street,
  receiving welfare, and physical abuse can
  increase violent crime. It is this global
  experience of coercion that leads to crime.